The Man with the Iron Mask
by GerdavR
Summary: Tony Stark finds himself literally in Doctor Doom's boots - and encounters The Red Skull. Meanwhile Victor von Doom struggles to act as Iron Man and tries his best to be as witty as Tony Stark. Contains body switch, self-inflicted injuries and strangely enough... humour. WARNING: Bad jokes and strange story twists ahead.
1. What?

**The Man with the Iron Mask**

Tony Stark felt like his head was about to split, a dull pain seared in his skull and almost made him throw up. He fell to his knees and lifted his left hand to his temple. It was only when his metallic glove made contact with his mask that he realised that he was wearing his armour. _Of course, I was in my lab… and then nothing, _Tony thought and even this simple thought send spikes of pain through his brain. _It almost feels like a hang-over… but I know that I haven't… _

The Avenger's train of thought was interrupted when his eyes set on his glove… or rather a silver glove that did not belong to him but was nonetheless on his hand. Within seconds his headache receded and Tony looked up, the very sight before him confirmed his worst fears: A large emerald banner with a stylised D hung on the wall in front of him, there was no doubt – he was in Latveria, in Doctor Doom's throne room to be exact. Tony groaned, _Doom – why does that guy even mess with me? _

They had had a few encounters in the past and even briefly formed an alliance against Morgana Le Fey, but apart from that he had only met Doom on occasions like when he tried to kill the Avengers or to take over the world (not necessarily in that order). Why was he in Doom's castle, did the madman kidnap him for some experiments? Tony shuddered at the thought of it and ventured towards the huge windows, it was raining outside. But it was not the Latverian weather that interested the man, it was rather the dreadful reflection he was casting onto the windows: Tony saw Doom's armour and asked himself why the hell was he, Tony Stark aka Iron Man, wearing that armour?! Before he could muse on that matter he heard how the door behind him opened. Tony felt trapped, he hadn't had the time to figure out if the armour's weapons were functional or how to use them. But instead of an army of Doombots only a butler appeared, the man bowed deeply before addressing Tony.

"Lord Doom, the Red Skull has arrived."

The Avenger realised that he had to improvise since it seemed that at least the butler didn't know he wasn't talking to Doom. _Right, time for my very first impression of Doom, shouldn't be too hard to copy his pompous babble._ "Well, what are you waiting for, you old fool? Show him in!" Tony felt a pang of guilt immediately, _damn, that was harsh_.

The butler rose an eyebrow. "Are you alright, my lord? You seem… tense."

Tony was surprised that the man in front of him wasn't afraid and even dared to ask how he was doing. "Erm, yes, the Red Skull isn't exactly a welcome guest." _Was that too hesitant? Surely Doom doesn't appreciate if his underlings question his mood. Strange…_

"Of course, Lord Doom."

The man vanished and led the Red Skull into the throne room mere moments later. Tony felt a bit disgusted as soon as the saw the visage of Johann Schmidt. His skull-like red face made a strong contrast to his black clothes, of course he was wearing a long leather coat and jackboots. The butler denoted a bow and left.

"Doctor Doom, always a pleasure," said the Skull with a barely noticeable German accent. "Thank you for receiving me – after our last, ah, unfortunate encounter I was afraid that you would shoot me on sight."

Tony had no idea what incident the Skull was referring to and tried to cover that with a trademark Doom snarl: "That remains to be seen, Schmidt. Doom doesn't tolerate fools who are wasting his time!" _Yes, that sounds about right, good thing that the mask is distorting my voice._

"I wouldn't be here if I weren't sure that you are interested in an alliance," continued the Skull and grinned in a creepy way.

Tony thought that it would add to his Doom-theatre if he turned around and clasped his hands behind his back – _it's after all a_ _classy super-villain pose! _He gave his fellow villain his coldest stare and assumed the pose. "I'm listening, Schmidt."

"I offer you the opportunity to get rid of your enemies, once and for all," the Skull stepped next to Tony and exhaled, "ah, a beautiful view… it reminds me of Bavaria… but now back to business. I've recently acquired research data from South-African scientists; the Apartheid-regime was doing some research back in their time about biological weapons which would only target people with certain racial markers. Of course they lacked the scientific means to achieve their goal, but nowadays it's entirely possible."

Tony had never actually hated an opponent to the core of his being, not even Obadiah Stane, but the Red Skull was another story: he despised everything the Nazi stood for. He felt the urge to punch the Skull but realised that he had to play along, at least for now. _I've to stop Schmidt before he can continue his crazy plans for genocide._ "I… Doom can take care of his own enemies."

"Of course, Doctor, but consider this: where would the United States be without their, hm, subhumans? They are so degenerate that they even elected…"

"Spare me your speeches, Schmidt," interjected Tony before he could stop himself. "Doom is not interested in your political views, get to the point."

"The current viruses are designed to kill everybody except Aryans, but I could modify one strain to attack the X-Gene – imagine a world without those pesky mutants! The X-Men would be gone, as well as any other super-powered people who got their powers through enforced mutation."

Tony felt how his blood ran cold. "I doubt that you've got the necessary resources for this kind of enterprise, is that why you came to me?"

The Skull smiled yet again. "Keen as ever, Doctor, yes, although I've the research data I'm in dire need for a well-protected laboratory in a neutral country to finish the strain."

"I'm indeed interested in this particular project, I will accommodate you… but only if I can supervise the experiments." _A perfect opportunity to play for time, in the meantime I should be able to contact the Avengers._

The Skull bowed, Tony was quite certain that it was meant in a mocking way. "Of course, you are the most accomplished scientist on earth, Doctor, your insights would be most useful." _Wow, I bet Doom's and Schmidt's last fall-out had to do with his shoddy flattery! But on the other hand… Doom is probably irony-proof._

XXXXX

Victor von Doom had been quite certain that his day couldn't get any worse after he had had another bout with Merlin about the location of Excalibur, that wrinkled old crook had managed to defeat him with a rather slight magic spell – **damn his eyes!** But when Victor tried to teleport himself back to his castle (and to that undoubtedly aggravating meeting with the Red Skull) the wizard had somehow meddled with his magic and sent him instead to a rather unwelcome place: Avengers Tower, in the armour of Iron Man of all places! After the first irritation Victor realised that it was a golden opportunity to have a good look at Stark's tech and especially his armour. However, before he could study the specs of the newest Iron-Man-suit he was disturbed by Captain America. The blonde man entered without knocking and almost drew a curse from 'Iron Man'.

**Calm down, V, this is not the place nor the time for a philippic,** he took a deep breath and tried his best to impersonate Stark: "Hey, hm, pal – how's it hanging?" Rogers gave him a strange look, **perhaps I should try a less colloquial tone?**

"Have you been up all night with Reed? You're always a little distraught after pulling an all-nighter, working on your science-projects."

**RICHARDS!** Victor forced himself to answer in an even voice. "Yes, you know me all too well… Steve."

"Listen, I don't care what you do with Reed, but we have a meeting that started five minutes ago – move it!" Although the words seemed harsh Victor couldn't help registering that the Captain spoke with a certain fondness to him.

Victor followed Rogers into the conference room, the rest of the Avengers – Captain Marvel, Wasp and Hawkeye were already waiting for them. He nodded towards his 'teammates' and turned his attention to Captain America who was debriefing them on a past super-villain-crisis. But suddenly a blaring alarm went off and Spider-Man appeared on the large computer screen in the middle of the room.

"Morning, guys… ahem, could you help me out? Apparently the Green Goblin has teamed up with several B-Grade villains to finally kill me and while I keep dodging Paste Pot Pete's glue and Sandman's attacks I'm afraid that an innocent bystander might get hurt."

"Lure them into Central Park, Peter – we will be there shortly!" said Rogers and the Avengers sprang into action and ran to the Quinjet. Victor followed them, desperately trying to get the armour to work. **Drat! I can't abstain – let's wrap this up quickly!**

Luckily Victor managed to load the armour's specs during the flight and was able to operate the suit in an acceptable manner. **I have to hand it to Stark – his design is elegant. And the way the solved the problem with the pushback of the repulsors is quite interesting, almost a pity that I can never tell him that.**

They landed in the middle of the park and split up to find the villains as well as to make certain that no civilians were in danger. Victor felt that is was beneath him to do crowd control, but at the same time he was rather keen to explore more of Stark's designs… and actually using the suit would provide interesting insights. As he flew over Central Park he suddenly spotted the Green Goblin who was throwing a jack-o'lantern-bomb at Spider-Man who dodged the explosion with almost unbelievable skill. Victor made a mental note to himself to study Spider-Man's exceptional skills at some point. He aimed one of his repulsors at the Goblin but before he could take out Norman Osborn an enormous force simply punched him out of the sky, Victor was disorientated for a few seconds before he realised that he had just been hit by the Sandman's enlarged fist. **Well, that's embarrassing – let's hope that nobody will ever learn that Doctor Doom has just been manhandled by an also-ran! Stark's proximity warning must be off-line… but now it's fixed.** Victor saw that the Sandman rushing towards him, ready to deal the finishing blow. Victor sighted and simply used his heat-beam to melt the sand into glass and trapped the attacker in a solid form. At the same time he knocked Paste Pot Pete unconscious with a well-placed repulsor-blast from his left gauntlet.

He activated his boosters and rose into the air – he spotted the Green Goblin mere moments later, he was obviously looking for Spider Man, and Victor decided that he would end this farce now! But before Doom could take a shot the Goblin spun his glider around to face him:

"Ohhh, the great Iron Man! I'm shaking in my boots! Let's see what I've got in my little baggie for you…" The Goblin laughed shrilly and pulled several smaller bombs from his bag. "Catch!"

Victor almost snorted at the words of that lunatic, **indeed, a few bombs would not even make a dent into Stark's armour, what a half-witted…**then he realised that the Goblin hadn't aimed for him but rather a family that had desperately tried to run away from the fight. He reacted rather quickly and blasted the bombs in mid-air, only to discover that they were not only carrying low-yield explosives but also greenish gas. **Not bad, any hero would be distracted by the gas – it will most likely kill the civilians, **and for a fraction of a second he mused whether he should simply blast the Goblin and ignore the collateral damage, but he discarded the notion, **bah, Doom can achieve both objectives****.** He flew towards the civilians and grabbed the parents and their child and flew them to security, away from the possibly deadly gas. Victor threw them roughly on the ground and returned to the Goblin, but in his absence Spider-Man had already defeated him – the villain was wrapped up in web and lay unconscious on the ground.

"Thanks for the assist, Tin Man!"

"You're welcome… Bug Boy." **I really have to work on my witty remarks. A propos witty remarks, I wonder what Stark is up to?**


	2. I hate magic!

_I wonder what the real Doom is up to? I guess he is in my armour and tries to steal my tech…_ After the Red Skull had left to gather his research data Tony had desperately looked for a communication device – _heck even a phone would do it_. But he only had managed to get lost in Doom's elaborate labyrinth of rooms that he called his castle. During his search Tony scrolled through the specs of Doom's armour and he was quite relieved to find out that the suit operated on the same principles as his own. While he was reading the necessary information on the castle's layout he almost ran into a statue of Doom, it was only a moment later that he realised that it wasn't a statue but a Doombot standing guard.

"Master! All hail Doom!" slurred the machine in a strangely metallic voice – did the 'normal' voice activate only when the robot had to fulfil the role of Doom?

"Erm, yes, glory to me. Say, Doombot, what are you guarding?"

"I'm guarding your bedroom, Master."

Tony knew that he had to find a way to communicate with the Avengers and decided that he would have a look in Doom's bedroom – _there may be a device and if not I can at least scratch that from my bucket list: check out Doctor Doom's underwear drawer_.

He entered and was surprised to see that Doom's personal chambers weren't as gaudy as he had imagined, they were rather functional and modern – no four-poster bed or creepy portraits, only tasteful modern design and Tony was actually a little freaked out to discover that not only did Doom design his armour in an similar way like he, the good Doctor did apparently also prefer the same furniture designer as he. _Will you look at that, under all these layers of an old-school mad scientist living in a castle Doom is actually a futurist_. _I always assumed that his whole act was genuine, but perhaps it's just a façade?_ Tony saw a computer on a desk, as he approached it the computer started itself and it read on the monitor: "Welcome, V." It took Tony only mere moments to activate the communication channel and he called Avengers Tower. Steve appeared on the screen. He was less than enthusiastic to see him.

"Doom, what do you want?"

_I have to play it carefully, Doom could be standing right behind him._ "I have business with Iron Man, Captain."

"You don't have business with Iron Man, Doom, you're having business with the Avengers!" responded Steve with a frown. Before Tony could answer an all too familiar figure stepped into the picture: A handsome dark-haired man with a goatee. Tony Stark put his hand on Steve's shoulder and said: "Let me deal with Doom… Steve."

Tony was too shocked to react, he just stared at his own face and felt like he was going to throw up in his armour. He had to refrain from starting to scream and finally managed to state: "You…"

"I don't have time for this, Doom, I've just saved New York City from a couple of second-class villains," said Victor with a smirk and ended the call without waiting for Tony to respond.

The man in Doom's armour howled in anger and smashed the desk as well as the computer. Tony felt uncomfortable in his skin and wanted to rip this damn armour (and maybe even the skin under it) away. But the impulse passed and he simply went to the rather large mirror that was standing next to the wardrobe. Tony of course saw that his eyes were brown instead of blue, which confirmed his fears, but he simply had to see for himself. The Avenger released the locks on his mask and pulled it from his face with an almost weary movement. The sight of Victor von Doom's destroyed face made his mind almost go blank, burnt marks and scars were running across his face and Tony felt the need to smash the mirror, instead he simply put the mask back on and concentrated on breathing. _Calm down, calm down… you've been through worse. This is only a Wednesday in the crazy life of Iron Man, by the end of the week you will be restored to your old self! All I have to do is to call Stephen Strange, it has to be some kind of magic –I HATE MAGIC – that made it all happen. _A little peep in his helmet alerted him to a message from one of Doom's lackeys.

"Lord Doom, the Red Skull has arrived with his scientists," said a Doombot.

_First things first_. "Show them to my lab, I will arrive shortly."

"Yes, my Lord."

Tony stepped into Doom's lab and greeted the Red Skull and his head scientist, Armin Zola. On his way to the meeting he had formed a plan on how to ensure that this despicable project would be destroyed once and for all. He just had to make sure that all data was gathered in one place before revealing his true intentions – Problem solved.

"Doctor Zola, I'm surprised to see you working outside your usual field of interest," said Tony. _Why does it have to be Zola, he can project his mind into his robots… that makes everything more difficult._

"Ah yes, Doctor Doom, the Skull convinced me to expand my work area for the greater good." Zola's distorted face was projected into the bulky head of the robot he was currently inhabiting. "And biological warfare has always been a hobby for me, since the First World War that is."

Schmidt approached Tony and denoted a small bow. "I have anticipated that you would like to see our progress so far and brought a few live specimen to demonstrate the effects of the virus," and with that the Red Skull gestured towards three tanks that were currently covered. The Nazi pulled a line and the cloths fell down. Tony felt a lump in his throat and was shocked to see that the Skull had three captives in the glass tanks: a chubby black woman wearing business clothes, a tall Asian man who wore a tracking suit and a white woman in her pyjamas. The prisoners looked desperate, horrified even, and Tony had to supress his immediate urge to break them out.

"The two subhumans will prove that the virus is effective against their race, while the mutant," he nodded towards the white woman, "will serve as sample for the so-called homo superior."

"I'm more interested in the data than a demonstration, Skull." _I can't let these people be infected – let's hope every bit of data is here! I have to end it now!_

"Of course, you are a man of science yourself, aren't you, Doctor?" said Zola in his creepy mellow voice and handed Tony a tablet. "As you can see I'm currently working on increasing the lethality of the virus, right now there is only a 60% success rate."

The Avenger started to read the formulas and wished that Hank Pym were here to confirm his first impression that the virus was indeed as dangerous as he had feared, but he was interrupted when he heard the Skull rant to the prisoners.

Schmidt was pacing up and down in front of the tanks, he was touching the glass slightly as if he wanted to caress the prisoners. "You should be honoured, vermin, you will be among the first of your race to die due to the purge!" He giggled in an unpleasant way. "But please, you did scream and shout for the last few days, do me the favour and let me hear your beautiful, sweet caws once again!"

"Go fuck yourself, Skull!" hissed the black woman. "Or better yet, let me out of this cage and I will show you who is going to caw!" Her eyes were puffy, and she looked tired, but it seemed as if she hadn't given up yet.

The Skull stopped his strides and stared at the woman. "Strange, I thought that I would receive threats of physical harm from the Oriental..."

"Not every Asian is a Kung-Fu Master you idiot!" snapped the man. "I'm just an English teacher!"

Tony had to supress a chuckle, the Red Skull was really a moron. But his amusement died down when he realised that the Skull's statement also included the possibility that the prisoners had already been infected. He put down the tablet and approached the tanks and stopped next to the Nazi who stood in front of the prisoners. He registered that the people inside the glass tanks went quiet the moment they saw him, the woman in the pyjamas even covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes, _wow, Doom does really scare people! But I guess they have read enough about him to assume that they're in trouble if they ever meet him. _"I gather you've already infected the captives, Schmidt?"

"Indeed, the virus needs at least a week until it kills its hosts. Hm, according to Zola they should be dead within the next two days."

_You are a sick pig, Skull – I'm going to… _Tony clenched his fist.

"You… you're really him… you're Doctor Doom" said the black woman almost shyly, but there was still defiance in her voice.

"Your powers of observations haven't left you, girl," giggled the Skull. "You see, nobody is never ever coming to save you – we are in Latveria, Doctor Doom's domain! Enter and abandon all hope…"

Tony charged up his gauntlets, and looked straight at the black woman. She averted her gaze, and this sight distracted Tony for a fraction of a second, but then he focused again and said: "Well, that's probably true nine times out of ten – but it seems that today is your lucky day," and with that Tony blasted the Red Skull with his power beam and instantly activated an EMP-pulse that shut down Zola's robot body. On his signal several Doombot appeared – _they are really handy, perhaps I should consider building a robot army for myself… damn, another day in Doom's shoes and I'm actually planning on taking over the world!_

"Take the Skull and Zola to the dungeons and isolate them in Hulk-proof cells," Tony commanded and the robots did his bidding. He turned to the captives in their tanks. Confusion and fear was clearly written over their faces. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid that I can't release you just yet – at least not until I've found a cure."

The mutant spoke for the first time: "Really? Are you going to help us?" Her voice sounded rasp.

"Yes, I need to study Zola's formulas first… but I'm confident that I should be able to develop an antidote." Tony longed to tell them that they weren't 'guests' of the dreadful Doctor Doom but rather of an well-know, beloved and super-smart super-hero, but then he realised how any explanation would freak out everybody who wasn't experienced with that kind of crazy stuff. _They would simply think that Doom has finally gone bonkers and that would scare the hell out of them._

Tony went to the tablet he had left on the desk and started to read the data again. But after a few minutes he felt the heavy silence in the room distracting him, it was strange for him to be in a room with three other people without talking to them. _I don't have time for small-talk, perhaps a little music will ease the tension. _He remotely activated the playlist that was on top of… _wait, who would have guessed that Victor von Doom has playlists? _Tony was even more surprised to discover that Doom's most played music largely contained Swing and Jazz instead of Wagner's complete works. The three prisoners looked a little taken aback when the music started playing, but it was apparent that the upbeat music had a soothing effect on them.

Tony focused on this work and when he looked up after he had some interesting ideas on how to neutralise the virus the Avenger realised that he had been working for eleven hours straight. It seemed like the music had stopped long ago, the captives were sleeping in their tanks, the black woman and the man looked like they had a fever, the mutant on the other hand seemed fine. Tony strode to the tech-replicator and synthesised nanites with a program to attack the viruses. He would usually run a series of tests, but since it was unclear how the infection would progress he decided to skip the tests and inject the patients with it while monitoring their response.

He prepared a dosage and stepped in front of the first tank, he cleared his throat and knocked softly on the glass. The black woman woke up and was startled to look at the grim visage of Doom.

"What's your name?" asked Tony.

"Sophie Linder."

"Sophie, I've synthesised a possible cure and I want to administer it to you – the problem is, that time is running out and I haven't had the chance to test it thoroughly… so do I have your consent to inject you with it?" Tony was aware that the other two had woken up as well and were listening to their conversation.

"Does my consent really matter? I mean you're the infamous Doctor Doom… why do you even ask?" she stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Do I have you consent?" Tony didn't want to discuss 'Doctor Doom's' reluctance.

"Yes, do proceed."

Tony applied the dosage with the nanites to a port on the tank and monitored Sophie's life signs while the nanites went airborne and started to do their work. After an hour it became clear that the nanites were successfully destroying all traces of the virus in the woman's bloodstream. Tony gave the other two patients a dosage. Artie Shi responded equally well. The mutant, Lynette Wilson, hadn't shown any symptoms, but Tony decided to play it safe to avoid a possible outbreak.

After more tests Tony considered the virus defeated and released the people from their glass prison. They looked at him with suspicion and stayed as far away from him as possible. Tony was irritated, he wasn't used to people avoiding him – usually they wanted to be near him. Suddenly, he felt like he couldn't stand them so desperately trying to keep their distance from him anymore. "I suggest you stay the night, tomorrow you will be flown home," said Tony, he was simply too tired to keep the Doom-charade up, all he wanted was to take a break.

"Thank you, Doctor, for everything you've done," began Sophie, "but why did you do it? Why did you help us in the first place?"

"Are you for real? Doctor Doom just saved our lives and now you're second-guessing him?" whispered Lynette fearfully.

Tony smiled to himself and answered: "I did it because I wanted to do a good deed once in a while and because the Red Skull and his methods disgust me. I may be a megalomaniac conqueror with a flair for theatrics, but even I have certain standards." _That and I'm not really Doom._

"You're not what I expected, Doctor," said Artie, "thank you for your help."

"Thank you," said Lynette so quietly that Tony almost didn't hear her.

"You're welcome." Their gratitude calmed him. But he couldn't help but think_ am I really so in need of people's approval that it bothers me so much if they're distant?_


	3. RICHARDS!

Victor was increasingly uneasy after Tony's call. **Who knows what kind of damage Stark does to my reputation while he is running free in Latveria? I had better hurry up and look for a reverse spell.**

"What was that about, Tony?" asked Steve. "Are you sure that Doom won't do something insane like blowi up the planet because you hung up on him?"

Idiot! "No, of course not – I had dealings with him in the past and… Listen, you can trust me, it will be fine." Victor tried to smile reassuringly and it felt strange, it had been some time since he'd had the need to actually express emotions with his face. Rogers slapped him on the shoulder and smiled back, Victor almost punched him straight in his face. **He touched me! Get your act together, V, that's what people do, remember?** In the deepest recesses of his mind, Victor was prepared to admit that he had sometimes longed for human touch, but certainly not from Captain America!

Captain Marvel joined them at computer and nudged Victor. "Good job out there, the little girl will surely grow up to be your biggest fan."

**They're all too damn colloquial!** Doom calmed himself and realised that he had no idea what Carol Danvers was talking about. "What little girl?"

"You saved her family in the Park today, and she gave Spider Man this for you," Carol handed Victor a small puppet with a shrill pink dress and impossibly curly hair. "Her father said that it is her favourite doll, isn't it sweet?"

Victor had never in his life seen anything so hideous and was tempted to throw it away, it insulted his taste on so many levels. And yet he felt something akin to the satisfying sensation that he sometimes had when his people were cheering for him when he returned to his castle. He took the doll from Carol and decided to keep it.

"How come that Stark gets all the good stuff," asked Hawkeye. He had entered the room behind Carol. "Not only is he a handsome devil with billions, no, even the little kids like him! It's unfair!"

Against his inclination Victor was amused about the banter. **He is an idiot, but an entertaining one.** "Perhaps you should also switch to the cool gadgets, Hawkeye, a bow and arrows became obsolete a few centuries ago."

"Hey, we will talk again when some super-villain short-circuits your gadgets, low-tech gets the job done – no matter if there is a power failure of some sorts." Clint laughed and turned to leave, and he almost bumped into Reed Richards who casually strolled into the conference room. **RICHARDS! Curses! What is he doing here?**

"How about a game of chess, Tony? I need to clear my head," asked the so-called Mr. Fantastic with a smile.

Victor was taken aback, but he was immediately tempted to test his wit against that of his nemesis. "Sure… Reed, let's play a game."

Victor had to admit that the following two hours were the most stimulating time he had had since… well, a very long time. At first he had refused to enjoy the game as well as the casual discussion about Richard's projects, but Victor von Doom had never been one to shy away from the truth and the truth was that Richards was brilliant in his chess moves as well as in his insights into science.

**No need to be surprised, V, you've always known that the man is a genius, but you just couldn't stand anybody smarter than you back in college.** Victor wasn't ignorant, of course he had realised a long time ago that even his longest Doom-knows-best-speeches couldn't bend reality and in some moments he felt that he had become a caricature of himself, a ranting would-be ruler instead of a pragmatist with a vision for his people. **Ah, the irony, Richards is literally flexible enough to adapt and to change while I'm encrusted, encrusted in a metallic shell…** He thought fleetingly about Boris and Ivana and certain reforms in Latveria he had implemented. **I'm trying to change, but I'm still trapped in my old Doom-Persona, or is this simply who I really am?**

"Ah, I forgot, Sue wanted to invite you for dinner tonight," said Reed abruptly, "and check."

"Well…" **No way, I've to sour through Starks tech and find a way to change back… ah, who am I kidding, I actually want to dine with them. Strange, the Fantastic Four have been my enemies for so long that I almost feel like… No, that can't be…** "…thank you, of course I will come." Victor moved his Knight and waited for Reed's next move.

XXXXX

Tony sat in Doom's bedroom and stripped his armour away, and every joint in his body seemed to hurt. After he had sent his 'patients' to the guest rooms he had retired into Doom's chambers. _Damn it, why didn't Doom build a more comfortable armour? Is he a masochist?_ He lay down on the bed and groaned. Tony buried his face in his hands and was startled by the feeling of scar tissue as soon as his hands made contact Doom's skin. He sat up again and saw that his hands were covered in bruises in various colours and small cuts. _What the… is Doom doing carpentry with closed eyes and without his armour? Well… I'm too tired to think about it now…_ He let himself sink back onto the bed and closed his eyes. Tony knew of course that he had to act as soon as possible and return to his life – _who know what diabolical scheme Doom is planning? For all I know he could try to ruin my reputation or worse – hit on Sue Richards or Carol! Just a little shut eye… then I will…_

A few hours later Tony opened his eyes and felt as tired as before. A quick look at the clock on the table confirmed that he had only slept for roughly five hours. _Right, time to get going – as charming the latverian weather is_ – a quick look out of the window showed another rainy day – _I need to get back._ A knock on the door startled him slightly.

"Lord Doom, your guests are waiting at the breakfast table, shall I excuse you?" Tony recognised the voice, it was the butler.

"No… thank you, I will join them shortly." _Yup, a cup of coffee is direly needed to get the old Stark-brain working._

"Sir, if I may… Ivana told me yesterday that you didn't eat at all, she didn't even have to make a sandwich."

Tony was at a loss for words. T_he dreadful Dr. Doom has staff who is honestly concerned about his well-being?_

The butler continued: "We understand that you have many responsibilities, but allow us to do our part."

_So, Doom is actually having something akin to normal behaviour around his staff, otherwise they surely wouldn't dare to address him like that._ "Yes, you're right of course."

"I've told them the usual story, Lord Doom. I know that you wanted it to change, but I just thought…"

_The usual story?_ "It's alright."

"Thank you, Sir."

He heard faintly how the butler left and looked at the armour lying on the floor. Tony sighed and picked up the nearest piece and started to get dressed. He carefully avoided the mirror – _why does Doom even have a mirror this large in his bedroom? I thought he couldn't stand the sight of his face?_

The second Tony entered the dining hall he realised that his need for company had placed quite a challenge before him: How on earth was he to eat breakfast or even drink a drop of the black liquid that fuelled him without taking the mask off? Luckily the specs for Doom's armour helped him out – he simply removed the mouth piece and sat down at the ridiculously long table and helped himself to a cup of black coffee. After the first gulp – _you gotta hand it to Doom, he drinks only the best blend_ – Tony felt like not only his brain but also his eyes seemed to work again. Of course he had registered his guests who also sat at the table, but strangely enough he somehow hadn't taken in how uneasily they stared at their plates instead of having a conversation until now. Neither of them had touched their scrambled eggs.

"Morning everyone!" _Time to break the ice!_ "The eggs are not poisoned, you should try them."

"Well, we would," answered Artie, "but we were told that nobody is to eat until you arrived and…" he trailed off, apparently unsure whether it was wise to continue.

_Damn! It wasn't just a figure of speech when the butler told me that they were waiting for me!_ Tony's mood darkened and he felt an all too familiar lump in his throat. He knew of course that it wasn't his fault, at least not directly, but at times like this he felt like everything was depending on him…

"I apologize, I'm afraid I don't usually have guests and the personnel had already served under the former King. It seems they're stuck in some old-fashioned protocols." _Nice one, Tones!_

"Strange customs you have here in Latveria, Doctor," said Sophie, "since your butler told us that should we touch the food before you do, we would be taken to the backyard and shot."

_Crap! Was this the 'usual story'?_ "That was only the Latverian sense of humour, it doesn't translate well into English… but in Latverian it's quite a hilarious wordplay." _Interesting, according to the butler this is all part of the theatre. Doom is more of an actor than I thought, he seemingly isn't as crazy as he seems, but that raises the question of who he really is._

XXXXX

Victor couldn't remember when he had last eaten meat loaf − this dish was beneath the ruler of Latveria − and for years he had never settled for anything less than a filet and an appropriate wine. He stared at his plate, a crumbly piece of meat loaf, beans and macaroni, somehow he had anticipated that a man of Reed Richard's keen intellect would be accordingly keen with his palate.

"What's the matter? Don't you like my meat loaf?" asked Johnny Storm eagerly. Victor lifted his sight from the meal to the cook. **Perhaps this was a mistake.**

"No, I simply wasn't expecting…"

"…that I would be trying to cook?" Interrupted Johnny. The young man leaned towards Victor and whispered in his ear: "Listen, Tony, do me a favour and pretend that it's delicious! My sister told me that I couldn't cook and I will be damned if I let her be right again!"

**What if I perish because of food poisoning?** But then he saw how Susan Richards fed Valeria with little pieces of her own dish. **At least I won't die alone – I will take my enemies with me!** And with that defiance of death Victor shovelled the meat loaf into his mouth.

To his surprise it didn't taste that bad. While he was eating Victor had the time to observe his long-time nemeses: Johnny Storm was arguing with Ben Grimm whether it was appropriate to drown the meat with ketch-up. Susan had several stains on her usually spotless FF-uniform, it seemed that feeding Valeria wasn't an easy task. Reed had had the same amount of food on his fork for at least five minutes, he was completely absorbed by a little booklet he was reading. **They are so… ordinary, hard to believe that those people are my worst enemies. **

Instead of indulging an inner monologue on how superior he was to them, Victor realised that he felt comfortable. For the first time in years he felt at peace, and this notion disturbed him deeply. **Have all these years of scheming to dominate the earth led to this? That all of my extraordinary skills and my enormous intellect pale in comparison the simple pleasures in life? Absurd! And yet… Isn't that what I began to suspect in the past years?**


	4. Smooth as ever

Tony paced back and forth in Doom's private jet. He had advised the pilot to make stops in Berlin and London, where he had said his good-byes to Artie and Lynette. Both had thanked him again but were nevertheless reserved towards him. It was still an unfamiliar feeling for Tony, he was used to people warming up to him after some time.

The last stop was New York, Sophie lived in Brooklyn and he intended to pay Stephen Strange a visit lest he could return in his own body. The prospect of getting back made him nervous, he had even tried to call the Avengers but they were apparently away on a mission and Jarvis refused to talk with him without the approval of Captain America.

"Are you alright?"

The question surprised him and he stopped dead in his tracks. Sophie was sitting in one of the luxurious seats and held a glass of orange juice in her hand…

He had to concentrate to see her face…

Everything became foggy…

Suddenly everything seemed to spiral around him. Tony felt like something was burning his brain up, and when the pain became unbearable he drifted into darkness.

When his consciousness resurfaced Tony felt so sick, his head hurt more badly than ever, and that certainly was an achievement. Someone was hovering over him, he could only see a silhouette. "Sophie?"

"Tony? Tony, are you alright?"

I know that voice… "Reed?"

Everything came into focus. It was indeed Mr. Fantastic who was bending (in all possible and impossible ways) over him. Next to him was Sue, Ben and Johnny stood a little back. He could hear how Johnny said: "Do you think my meat loaf caused this?"

"Who knows…" answered Ben, he didn't seem too worried.

_I'm at the Baxter Building! I'm back!_ "You won't believe where I have been…"

"I don't understand, Tony, you were here… you ate dinner with us and then you suddenly collapsed."

_What?!_ "What?"

"Don't you remember?" asked Sue and felt his forehead.

"Wait… I have to tell you… something strange happened… I was trapped in Doom's body and now I'm back… I know how it sounds… but you have to believe me!"

"Hmmm, I thought that you were playing chess differently…" muttered Reed, and scratched his head.

"Doctor Doom usurped my body for two days and possibly did all kinds of nefarious things and you only registered that it wasn't me because he played a different move-set?!" yelled an agitated Tony.

"Wait, calm down… two days? But in that time you… or rather Victor didn't do anything besides save the city from the Green Goblin and his stooges and have dinner with us," said Sue and helped Tony back on his feet.

_What?!_ "What?" But before Tony could reflect on the possibility that the most dangerous man on earth had spent all his time, in which he could've killed every Avenger and half of New York City, dining with his worst enemies and playing board games, something different came to his mind: Sophie.

"I wasn't alone when… well, when we switched back – Sophie is now alone with him!"

"Sophie?" asked Johnny with awe. "Damn, you are a real playa, Tony – even with Vic's ugly mug you managed…"

"Shut up!" yelled Sue and Tony unison.

XXXXX

Victor felt like Mephisto himself had tried to pull his very soul from his body, he was hurting and felt sick. But it took him only mere moments to recognize that these were the same sensations from a few days ago. **Damn it! I needed more time!**

"Doctor! Are you alright?" asked a female voice. Victor opened his eyes and saw how a rather beautiful woman was bending over him. Her curly hair framed her face in a flattering way…

He stood up and tried to hide his embarrassment. "I'm alright, it was only a moment of… I had a fight a few days ago, surely…" **Pull yourself together, V, you're Doctor Doom! Doctor Doom doesn't stammer! **"Doom requires no help!"

The woman seemed taken aback. **Who the devil is she? And why are we on my plane?**

"Right, I… perhaps you just worked too hard on the cure."

Before Victor could answer harshly, the monitors in the plane began to flicker and finally Armin Zola's face appeared on them.

"You betrayed me and the Skull, Doom," he said in his lisping way, mellow and creepy, "and you almost imprisoned me in my robot… but Zola was too smart for you, oh yes… I'm too smart for you. Good-bye, Doctor." And with that the engines of the plane simply shut down and the plane literally fell from the sky.

**Idiot! I can fly!** Victor knew he had but seconds, he activated his finger-lasers and cut a hole in the hull of the airplane. The effect was immediate, the interior as well as Sophie was sucked out. Doom blasted the cockpit-door open to get his pilot, but the moment he had a look into the cockpit Victor knew that the man was dead, probably fried by a circuit overload.

Without further delay he started his rocket boosts and left the plane through the hole in the hull. The woman screamed as she fell towards certain death. Victor took a dive and caught her in mid-air, she clinched to him, crying silently. He ignored her and calculated his position via GPS. **Zola is no fool after all, he sabotaged my plane while we were crossing the Atlantic. With my current power reserves we will never reach land. But I will survive this and make Zola pay! Whatever Stark has done, Zola should know better than to mess with DOCTOR DOOM! Hm, this is not the time to think in capitals, especially not the time of think of myself in the third person… Should I just drop the woman? No… I don't want to… I don't want to be that person anymore.**

"Are you unharmed?" he asked her while floating in mid-air.

The woman simply clung to him, unable to answer. She wasn't crying anymore, but fear was written all over her face.

"Do not fear, Doo… I will fly you into safety." **Smooth, V, really smooth.**

It took him about two hours to find a small island of some sorts, it wasn't even an island, it was more of a rock in the middle of nowhere. The woman was apparently completely exhausted and also cold, she was shivering. Victor sighed, he removed his cape and put it around her. **You are going too soft, it is only a question of time before she gets killed one way or another. But perhaps… for a short time… I'm no coward and I won't hide behind my persona anymore.**

"Are you alright?" he asked her, the question sounded strange in his own ears, his voice had an unusual mild intonation.

"Yes…" she answered quietly.

"I have to recalibrate my power-cells to absorb solar energy, it will take about an hour. After that I will be able the reach the Caribbean Islands."

The woman stared at him, she was visibly afraid. "_We_ will be able to reach the Caribbean Islands, right?"

Victor was taken aback, **bloody hell, it's just what I… ah, I see.** "Of course." Without further delay he opened the armour interface on his left arm and began to work on the power flux. From time to time he looked up and peeked at the woman. **She is so… elegant, even in a situation like this. How did a lout like Stark meet a woman with her class?** Unfortunately she caught him in the act.

"What is the matter, Doctor?" She was still wearing his cape, but she wasn't shivering any more, the sun had warmed her up.

**Hm, what now? The easiest would be to answer in my usual Doom-prose, but since I want actually talk to the woman…** "I'm sorry, I was merely reminiscenting…"

"Are you alright?" Victor snorted – **how am I feeling? Like a youngling who has no experience with women** – and the woman in front of him was visibly confused, she frowned and eyed him up. "You are different from before."

"Maybe, perhaps I'm just a little bit angered at the feeble assassination attempt from Zola, don't you think?"

"It's not just that, yesterday you were so relaxed…" she interrupted herself.

"Please, do continue," Victor said calmly while continuing to work on the interface.

"I'm sorry, it is not my place to presume to know you, Doctor. You saved us and I'm very grateful."

**Indeed? And Stark even saved more than one person in the meagre amount of time he spent in my body? Time to have a look at the armour's recordings and time protocols.** Victor had already started to sour through the recordings during the flight to the 'island', but he had only come as far as the second meeting with the Skull.

XXXXX

Tony had returned to Avengers Tower and was scanning for Doom's private jet on all possible frequencies. _Damn it, I have to make sure that the maniac doesn't do anything drastic!_ He pinched his nose and cursed himself for his utter inability to anticipate his failures. _No, pull yourself together, of course you ALWAYS anticipate too much, you overthink everything to the point of screwing up!_

At this very moment one of his satellites picked up a Doom power-signature. It had indeed paid off to memorise the specs of Doom's armour. Tony zoomed in on the coordinates provided by the satellite and was surprised to see Doom and Sophie literally sitting on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic sea. "What the…" Tony murmured. It made no sense, where was the plane? In the end, he decided, it didn't matter, he simply had to go and make sure that Sophie wasn't harmed by Doom. Tony hurried to the launch pad and put the coordinates into his suit.

_Come on, Doom, you can actually do the humane thing and not abandon Sophie in the middle of nowhere!_


	5. The fair maiden

"The energy reserves have replenished… Sophie," said Victor and readied the armour to take off. He had revised the recordings and knew what had happened in the past two days, and most importantly, he knew Sophie's name now. **But of course I've also stood unmovingly for about an hour without talking to the woman, smart move V, not creepy at all.**

"Okay… hm, do you want your cape back?" Sophie rose to her feet. She looked rather tired.

"It's a cowl, but… no, you're likely to be cold again."

He picked her up and took off. Holding her so close to himself Victor realised that the woman had an oddly alluring smell about her. It was not perfume, his sensors told him, but rather a mixture of her own odour, orange juice and the salty scent of the ocean. Victor von Doom was a man of refined taste – at least in art and gastronomy and it bewildered him that he would be drawn to this, admittedly beautiful, but still common woman with her rather common odour.

Of course he had already ran a background check and had discovered that there was a Sophie Linder registered as a lawyer in New York City. He was about to check out in which law school she had made her degree when something came to his mind: **Perhaps I should just ask her about her personal life instead of stalking her on the internet.**

"Which profession do you pursue?" **Well, it's a start.**

Due to the noise made by his rocket boots she had to speak rather loudly: "I'm a lawyer for taxes, unfortunately."

"Unfortunately? What do you mean?"

"I went to law school to become a civil rights lawyer, but it turned out that there are a lot more tax-experts needed in my profession than idealists," she sounded bitter. "I always thought that it would be temporary, but that was five years ago. Strange isn't it? How sometimes times fly by and suddenly you realise that… But I'm rambling, excuse me."

**So far so good, V, this is the perfect opportunity to say something charming! Go for it!**"Not at all, Ms. Linder…" **Zounds, use her first name!** "…I asked because I'm really interested. Please, do go on." **Shaky, shaky, V, you can do better.**

"With all due respect, Doctor, I can't imagine why somebody like you should be interested in my moaning about my career."

Victor stopped in mid-flight and stared at Sophie, she was visibly surprised at the sudden stop. He was confused, was she mocking him? "Please elaborate… in what should the likes of me be interested in?" **Too scary, ease it up!** "If not in the tales of a fair maiden?" **Well, you botched that royally, V. Perhaps it's time to build a robot companion…**

"Erm… uh, right," replied Sophie.

Victor resumed the flight and sighted: "I apologize, Sophie, I'm out of practice… I'm afraid that small-talk isn't my forte. Being a ruthless villain does that to you. But you should hear my threats, they're really smooth and well-worded."

Sophie laughed and Victor was surprised that she hadn't fallen silent because of his inability to act like a normal human being. He had never pictured himself to be funny – except when he had told Iron Man in a rather backhanded way that a lot more people hated Tony Stark than Victor von Doom a few years back, of course.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, Doctor, but… well, you were witty. You salvaged what was left of a rather awkward conversation with class."

"Doom is all about class," replied an amused Victor.

xxxxx

A few hours later they landed on the roof of the Latverian embassy in Trinidad and Tobago. Sophie and he had shared a pleasant conversation and Victor regretted already that they would soon part. Doom had already informed the staff of the embassy that he was in need of a jet to journey to New York. Without delay they boarded the airplane and continued their journey, it was only when he took a seat in the luxurious private jet that Victor realised that Sophie looked pale. **Did Stark mess up with his nanites? No, I've checked the tech, it was flawless.**

Sophie seemed to register his stare. "I'm just a little bit tired, I don't get shot down by a robot-nazi-villain and saved by Doctor Doom every day. Twice actually." She smiled at him weakly and it pained him, he averted his gaze and stared out of the window.

**Ah, but it wasn't me who saved her – who knows what I would've done in Stark's place? Probably I would simply have sent the Skull away… Without Stark she would be dead now. Bah, only feeble people second-guess… aw, shut it, I'm not in the mood for the Doom-prep-talk.**Victor had to admit that he did like Sophie, a lot. And he actually felt uneasy because he knew that it was only a matter of time before she learned that it hasn't been him who had saved her. And even if she was to ready to overlook that, there was still the fact that he was widely considered to be a world-conquering maniac. **Why am I even thinking in that direction? There is no chance that it will work, what's the matter with me?****I should get over it and tell Sophie the truth before I get embarrassed by Stark.**

"What's up? Did you get tired of me thanking you?" asked Sophie jokingly, but when she looked at him the smile died on her lips. Victor saluted her insight, she didn't see more than his eyes and yet she was able to determine that he wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Victor wanted to massage his temples or at least rub his eyes, and for the first time since he switched back he regretted that he couldn't simply pull the metal mask from his face and give in to his longings. **Curse my mask and my pride!** He cleared his voice: "Listen Sophie, I have to admit that I wasn't quite myself when… when you were saved from the Red Skull and Zola. I don't want to confuse you, but I saw you for the first time on my plane today."

"What?" Sophie had an incredulous expression on her face **– ****but who could blame her?** "But who…"

"It was Iron Man – the details are irrelevant, but we switched places and it was he who saved you and your companions." Victor almost couldn't bear the thought of losing Sophie's good graces, **curse my weakness**− he rose to his feed and wanted to pace back and forth, but in the end he just stood there while talking to the woman who had somehow reached his heart, even after only a few hours together. "I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier."

"I don't…" stammered Sophie, "I don't get it. Iron Man was you, but then you became you again?" She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes shortly. "Well, I've read about all the crazy stuff that happens in the world, I just never… It's unbelievable…"

Victor went to a small bar and poured himself a rather stiff drink (that was at least one thing he could do in his body that he wouldn't have been able to do in Stark's without repercussions). "Do you want one?" Sophie nodded and he poured her a drink and gave it to her. Her hand was shaking a little when she took the glass.

They took a few sips, then Sophie whispered: "I thought that you were a completely different person than yesterday, back then on the plane. Your whole attitude had changed, but never in a million years I would've thought that something like that was even possible."

"Well, it was a strange day – even by my standards," said Victor quietly.

"I take it that you're not just referring to the fact that you switched bodies with Iron Man?" asked Sophie cautiously.

**She is indeed very perceptive…** "That part was only a variation of an old gambit of mine. The strange part was that I saved you from falling to your death and…" he trailed off, he couldn't say it.

"…that you flirted with me," added the lawyer sitting across from him. "Yes, I got that part… and I'm sorry too, Doctor. You see, I realised pretty soon from the way you looked at me that you were interested. And I played dumb, I know the narrative all too well and decided that I couldn't take my chances."

Now it was Victors turn to ask an incredulous "What?"

Sophie took a deep breath before continuing. "The narrative which I'm alluding to is the one of the evil man who is enchanted by a skinny, usually blonde 'fair maiden' as you put it, and goes out of his way to save her. The question is, what would happen if the fair maiden isn't a prize to be won anymore? Say, for example if she is a lesbian, then the reward usually grated for saving a damsel in distress – sexual favours – wouldn't be an option anymore. It was a stretch that the chubby black woman still fit the bill, but her being a dyke? And thus the motivation for the evil man to become good would disappear and with that the chance for the maiden to be saved. So I lied to you when I told you that I lived alone, I'm living with my girlfriend and we are quite happy."

Victor took these words in and answered slowly: "I'm impressed, your cynicism almost rivals my own." Victor's heart felt heavy and his stomach started to hurt. He drew a ragged breath. He had been a fool! After all those years of experience with human nature he was still a damn fool! Anger boiled up in his chest, and Victor felt the urge to crush something.

"Tell me, would you have saved me if you hadn't had a sexual interest in me?" said Sophie quietly.

Victor's fury disappeared at these words. He had to admit that he had indeed thought about letting her die, and what had prevented him from doing so had at least partly been his tender feelings towards her. But at the same time he wanted to believe that he was capable of change. **I'm more than a cliché and now is the time to prove it.** "You're mistaken, but I won't hold it against you. But what makes you think that I wouldn't kill you for your insolence right now?"

"Nothing, I don't know if you're going to kill me or not. But the thing is: I do actually feel a certain sympathy towards you. I think that you deserve to know the truth."

Victor laughed bitterly: "You mean you liked Stark posing as me?" **Saying that loud, that… actually hurt.**

"I don't know if I like him or you… but I liked our conversation on our way to Trinidad and Tobago. I felt that I could relate to you on a personal level." Sophie also rose to her feet, she stood in front of Doom, she wasn't short, but Victor still towered above her. "I'm not lying, you're not much of a small-talker, Doctor, but you are a good conversationalist."

Victor simply stared at her and saw her become insecure under his gaze. And for a short moment he enjoyed that he still managed to scare her, but that moment was fleeting. "Don't insult me," he said in a low voice. "If you're not interested just say so, spare me your pity. Despite appearances I'm not so petty as to throw a woman out of my plane just because she isn't responding to my, hm, advances."

"It's not pity, it's the truth – and I felt that I owed you that much after you saved me and even helped me to get back home." Sophie lifted her hand as if… as if she wanted to lay it on his arm, but she reconsidered and lowered the hand again.

Before she could lower her hand completely he caught it in his right hand, with the left he removed his mouth piece and bent down to kiss it. "A pity that this fair maiden is already taken," Victor whispered and put the grill in its place again.

Sophie was looking him straight in the eye, frowning slightly. "We will land in half an hour, if you would excuse me, Sophie." Doom turned around and headed for the compartment in the front, there was no need to spend the remaining time in awkward silence. **This is the best good-bye you could hope for anyway, V. At least you kept your cool and didn't act like you did in your youth – by my mother's soul, I was a dork then.**


	6. A letter from Richards

Tony had traced Doom's whole journey from Trinidad and Tobago to the JFK airport in New York, _damn it, why was Doom always a step ahead of me? I flew until my thrusters bled, and now I'm right where I started! _It had its perks being Iron Man, the airport security immediately allowed him access to the airfield where Doom's private jet had landed. It took him only mere moments to find Sophie. She was standing next to a Latvernian official, probably waiting for a car to take her to the main building. A quick scan showed Tony that Doom had already left the premises; his energy signature was fading. He landed next to Sophie and the diplomat who looked at the Avenger with disdain. Tony ignored the man and addressed Sophie: "Sophie… Ms. Linder, are you alright?" He fully expected at least a bewildered look from her, but she stayed perfectly calm.

"Yes, everything is alright, thank you, Iron Man. Doctor Doom treated me well. He… left… for the embassy, I think."

Tony opened his visor, his experience had shown him that people reacted better if they saw that there was actually a human being in the suit. "Listen… I… well, how shall I put it…"

"It's alright, Mr. Stark. The Doctor already told me that it was you who saved us from the virus. Thank you very much!" Sophie smiled at him, it was a little shaky… _but after a day in Doom's care it's a wonder if she isn't scarred for life. Or hasn't been transformed into a monster like Sharon Ventura for that matter._

"Well, you seem remarkably calm, Sophie, most people freak out after something like this… so… tell me if you need anything." He handed her his business card.

"Thank you, I appreciate it, really. But if you excuse me, I think I would like to go home now and take a very long shower, have something to drink and eventually I will start to laugh hysterically – not necessarily in that order," she said in complete earnestness.

_Oookay, should I ask about that?_ "Pardon me?"

"Nothing, sorry, it was a bad joke… I just need to rest," replied Sophie, she blushed a little.

"Ah, I see… being the master of tension-relieving jokes I can relate to that…" Tony smiled reassuringly and closed his visor again. "I mean it – call me if you need anything."

"Thank you again, Mr. Stark…"

"Please call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my old man." With that he activated his thrusters and took off. During his flight to the Star-Tower Tony mused shortly about Doom. To his own amazement he wasn't really surprised that Doom had behaved in an almost gentleman-like way. He sighed._ I am probably making it too easy for myself, just calling Doom a villain. Sometimes he has been a valuable ally, it's a pity that he is also a power-hungry dictator._ Tony thought again about the strange deeds Doom had performed while being in his body. Perhaps he should ask Reed about his long-time nemesis... _and scold him once more because Mr. Not-so-Fantastic apparently can't tell the difference between Doom and myself! But first things first, I have to make sure that there is no Doom-tech in my suit._

xxxxx

Sophie closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall, she felt like everything had been a dream... She shortly closed her eyes an inhaled deeply, when she opened her eyes again a tall woman with short brown hair stood in front of her. Laura wore her favourite shabby T-Shirt and had an opened strawberry-yogurt in her hand – never in her life had she been more happy to see her lover.

"Hi," said Sophie and smiled wearily.

"Hi yourself, sugar, you're back already? I thought the conference in Berlin would last until next Monday," replied Laura and kissed Sophie. Then she registered that her girlfriend was holding an unfamiliar piece of cloth. "What's that? A new coat? Where is your bag?"

Sophie absent-mindedly stared at the green cowl in her hands… It was Doom's cape and somehow the very sight of that cloth in her apartment made everything that had happened in past few days real. She let the cowl fall and hugged Laura with all her might. "It was horrible… I'm so glad that I'm home again."

It took Laura approximately one hour to actually understand what had happened to Sophie.

They were lying on their bed, Laura hold Sophie in her arm. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that, honey. Do you want to eat something? You must be hungry."

Sophie cuddled up and answered: "Actually, I'm famished… but perhaps you should stay and hold me a little while longer."

Laura smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "What a pity that we don't have a butler…"

Sophie protested but Laura got up and headed for the kitchen. When she passed by the door she saw that Doom's cape was still lying on the floor. Laura crouched down to pick it up when she heard a soft knock on the door. She went to the door and looked through spyhole. Her landlord was standing outside. Impatiently she opened the door and snapped: "We already paid our rent, Mr. Pime…"

But before she could end her sentence she saw that Mr. Pime hadn't come to nag about delayed payment. A gaping hole was in his chest, the only thing that was holding his body on its feet was a large man who was wearing a mask with Crossbones on it. Before she could even scream the man knocked her unconscious and stepped into the apartment.

xxxxx

As much as Victor tried to read reports about the economic development of Latveria, his thoughts wandered back to Sophie. Doom sat in his office in the Latvernian embassy. He replayed the record of their final conversation for the fourth time, even though he had an eidetic memory and remembered everything about it without visual help.

It had been a few years since he had last had feelings for a woman, she was a Latvernian soldier who had served in his palace guard. Irina had never realised that she had caught Doom's eye − after a background check he had decided that her ancestry was too low for him and had thus never acted on his feelings for her. It had been nothing more than a fleeting interest, Victor was not a romantic man – he knew that his feelings would fade eventually and so they did.

What haunted him, however, was a strange feeling that he was becoming more and more distant to his people and their well-being. At times it felt like he didn't care at all about his own country, everything was the same to him. Another scheme failed, another plan succeeded – at the end it didn't matter, there was no development. **Encrusted indeed, always the same old tricks and plans, forever stuck being the dreadful Doctor Doom while Richards and even Stark reinvent themselves.** Stark has even been head of S.H.I.E.L.D., the villain in the Civil War and the – at least in his opinion – the hero of the Secret Invasion, while he had been the same caricature of a super-villain as ever. He had tried to change, he even allowed Boris to talk back to him and had occasionally visited Ivana in the kitchen to ask about her family.

But in the end Victor had always felt the same reluctance to discard himself, or what he believed to be himself completely – it felt like treason to his person to even consider certain choices he had made in the past as mistakes. Doom wasn't ashamed of his deeds or the way the ruled Latveria, he was certain that he was a better leader than most democratically elected governments, but at the same time he had to acknowledge that he clung too much to his power. **In the end it's all for naught… Doomed indeed. Perhaps I should cease my efforts to change, in the end I will always be who I am…**

Victor unlocked his armour and pulled his left metallic glove from his hand. He was well aware that his behaviour had become obsessive, but over the course of the last few months it had always had a calming effect on him… to make sure that he was still human.

His right hand, still in the armour, pinched his left. Victor was able to lift around 10 tons with his armour − and it was thrilling to watch and feel what effect this power had on his unprotected hand. Doom moaned as he felt how his skin was broken and watched with morbid fascination how blood ran down his hand. It had been more than a year since somebody had actually hurt him or even caused him discomfort – the armour had kept it all away, everything save his own hand. I'm still here. It's all real. Victor knew that it wasn't a healthy course of action, but it was the only thing that kept him from disassociating completely from his environment.

The concept of solipsism had always been alluring. There had been times when he believed that he alone mattered and that he was the only real person on earth. He feared that one day he would lose his sanity completely and start actually believing that his was the only consciousness in this galaxy. The pain was his anchor.

He thought about Sophie once more while he applied force to his little finger until he could hear the bone break with a dry sound. Victor cursed under his breath and stared at his mistreated hand. **I didn't have the urge to make myself feel when I was in Stark's place… It's not about the Fantastic Four, it's not about Sophie. It's about human contact, intellectual and bodily contact. My armour isn't just a shell, it's also my prison – by the seven hells, how banal!** Victor snorted to himself. **The mighty Dr. Doom, brought down by the fact that all human beings are social! It's almost as embarrassing as being manhandled by the Sandman…** Before he could brood any longer over his human side a quiet beep indicated that one of his aides dared to disturb him.

He gritted his teeth as he put his left glove back on; yet the hurt made him feel alive and real. He pushed the button of his intercom with his broken little finger and although a sharp pain make him flinch said with an even voice: "Yes?"

"Lord Doom, I'm deeply sorry to…"

"Yes, yes! What is it?" Victor wasn't in the mood for grovelling servants.

"A letter was delivered to you… from Reed Richards."

Victor was on his feet before the ambassador could speak the last syllable of Mr. Fantastic's name. **A letter? A LETTER? How dare he?!** He literally tore the door open – his little finger hurt in a most exquisite way – and snatched the letter from the hands of his underling. Victor ripped the envelope open and was taken aback: The letter consisted of an almost empty piece of paper. There were only four letters on it: g1 f3.

Victor's mind stopped, he inhaled deeply and stood without moving almost for a full minute. Thoughts raced through his head, and he felt a strange dull pain in his chest. The ambassador didn't dare to speak, the silence was deafening.

Finally Doom gestured for a pen, which the man next to him officiously provided and wrote on the back-side of the letter: g7 g6. "Deliver this letter to the Baxter Building," he said and threw it on a small table next to him. Then he headed back in his office, closing the door behind him.


	7. Peasant!

The shrill ringing of his mobile phone distracted Tony just before he could finish the security check he was running – after all Doom had had almost two days to hack his systems. Without looking at the caller id Tony picked it up and said: "Handsome billionaire playboy at your service!"

"Uh, hello?" It was an unknown female voice.

Tony narrowed his eyes and had a quick look at the number. "Hi, to whom am I speaking?"

"Are you Iron Man?"

"Well a few years back I would've abnegated and told you he was my bodyguard…"

"I'm Laura Arber – Sophie Linder's girlfriend – you've got to help her! About half an hour ago she was abducted by a brute with a mask. I think I've seen him on the news – he is some…" The woman had at first sounded very calm, but now her voice indicated that she was at the verge of panic.

_Damn! I should've put her under surveillance!_ "Calm down, Laura, I will be with you in a few minutes – I will track the culprit and save Sophie." The moment he had said the last sentence Tony already regretted it. _No promises! You should know it by now! Don't burden yourself with promises you can't necessarily keep, only to hurt people more when you disappoint them!_

"Al… Alright, please hurry!"

xxxxx

Within ten minutes Tony was standing in Sophie's and Laura's apartment. He was scanning the crime scene, but it simply confirmed what he had already deduced from Laura's statement: Crossbones had kidnapped Sophie and Tony had no clues where he had taken her. One thing was clear: It had to do with the events of the past days – there was a high probability that someone wanted to continue Armin Zola's research.

Laura had been standing next to him, chewing on her fingernails. Her eyes were red and puffy. "Can you help, Iron Man?"

Tony placed his hand on her arm and squeezed it gently. "I will find Sophie." He started a query via his suit of all known hide-outs of Crossbones and cross-checked it with his former employers. While his IA processed the data, he turned again to Laura. "Tell me again how…" Tony started but then his gaze fell on an all-too well known piece of emerald-green cloth that was draped over the sofa. "It that Dr. Doom's cape?"

Laura sniffled and nodded. "Yes, Sophie still had it when she came home. After this crazy Nazi scientist had caused the plane to crash…"

"Slow down, which Nazi scientist? Armin Zola?" _Damn it! I should've known that the EMP-Pulse hadn't been enough for that slimy reptile!_

"Yes, he appeared on the screen on Doom's plane and announced that he wanted to avenge Doom's or rather your betrayal."

"I'm so sorry, Laura – I captured Zola back in Latveria… had I known that he had escaped…" said Tony softly, he felt guilty. _Why didn't you check? You idiot!_

"I don't' care!" said Laura with a firm voice. "Just… just bring Sophie back, please!"

"I will," replied Tony and stepped on the narrow balcony. Without further delay he took off into the night.

Crossbones had too many hide-outs to look into, _I need to enlist some help_. Of course Tony had already deployed all his technical resources and was running Crossbones' picture through all know CCTVs he had access to, but he knew from experience that sometimes a two-dollar snitch was sadly enough more efficient than all his hi-tech-equipment. _Time to pay Daredevil and Spider Man a visit, they're way more streetwise than me._

xxxxx

It took Tony only about an hour to track down Daredevil, but the man without fear was currently on a mission to foil the Hand's ploy to murder an old Ninja Master who had once taught Ironfist how to use his powers.

"I will keep my ears open, Iron Man," Daredevil promised before he disappeared in the darkness.

_Well, we all have our hands full… perhaps Spidey is less busy._

xxxxx

"Sure thing, tin can!" said Spider Man while pacing back and forth on the ceiling of an abandoned old house. "Just let me think a moment or two…"

Tony watched how Peter finally did a back-flip and landed in front of him. _Pete is really a good friend, a pity he won't join the Avengers once and for all._

"We should ask Sam the Snail about underworld gossip!" Spider Man sounded almost cheerful. "I think I know where he hangs out."

Energetic as always Peter jumped out of the window and made his way to a shady part of the town. Tony followed the wall-crawler to a bar in a dark back-alley.

"Let's wait here, he will come out eventually," said Peter and sat down on the roof of the building next to the bar. "Sam the Snail… Did you ever wonder who makes up those stupid nicknames? Always alliterations, it's so boring. Ah, nice job the other day with the Green Goblin and, hm, Paste-Pot-Pete."

Tony opened his visor and smiled at his friend. Peter's jokes were always a good distraction from grave situations. "I thought that he called himself Trickster these days."

"Aw, but I have such fond memories of old Petey, I still call him by this pet name… ah, I'm getting nostalgic just thinking about the times when I still battled Batroc the Leaper instead of uh, Deathmachine."

"There is a villain who calls himself Deathmachine?" asked Tony. He kept eye-contact with the bar and the very sight of this establishment made him uneasy, it reminded him of darker times. He shuddered.

"No, but there could be… these days the villains have much more martial names, you know."

"Anyways, it wasn't me the other day by the way – Dr. Doom had hijacked my body," Tony stated in a matter-of-fact-tone.

"Ah, I thought that your one-liners were lamer," replied Spidey blithely. At this very moment the back-door opened and a fat little man with a bonnet left the bar. Spider Man jumped elegantly down the alley and webbed the man before he could even light up his cigarette and yelled: "Sam! Long time no see!"

The informant bleached. "For god's sake! Can't a man have a pint of beer in peace? I won't tell you nothin'!"

Iron Man landed next to Spider Man: "Pretty please?" Tony asked, closing in on the man.

"My lips are sealed!" hissed Sam.

"Pretty please with sugar on top?" said a male voice from the shadows. They turned around to see Dr. Doom stepping into the light of the flickering street lamp. _Great! What is he doing here? He must've bugged my armour – oh why oh why haven't I finished my security check?_

Tony immediately charged up his repulsors while Peter simply said: "What's up Doc?" But his voice betrayed his fear.

"Well… since you ask so nicely, I will make an exception…" whispered Sam. "What do you want to know, Mr. Doom?"

Victor ignored the two heroes and stepped in front of Sam, his metallic face only centimetres away from the other man: "Where are Crossbones and Armin Zola?"

Sam cleared his throat. "I heard rumors that Crossbones was last seen in an old subway-station in Queens."

Doom turned to face Spider Man und Iron Man: "Gentlemen, shall we?"

_What's going on? Why is Doom interested in Crossbones and Zola – or is he interested in Sophie's well-being?_ "Wait a moment Doom, what's your stake in all this?" Tony powered down his repulsors, it was clear that Victor wasn't picking a fight.

"I'm making a point, Stark, not that you would understand, being the peasant that you are," Victor replied in his usual arrogant intonation. You should really let go of that Doom-prose, V, it's getting old. Peasant is so 1964…

"If the billionaire is a peasant, what am I?" butted Spidey in.

Damn, such a golden opportunity and I can't think of a come-back! Victor just stared at Peter with the coldest stare he could muster. Finally he turned away, started his rocket boots and flew towards Queens.

"Dr. Doom to the rescue? Are you sure that you switched back, Tony?" asked Peter and scratched his head.

"Doom is acting strange, but… we don't really have a choice, do we?" replied Tony, he grabbed Peter and flew after Victor. _Is Doom trying to change or what is this about? He actually did a few good deeds… _

Tony's computer had of course already compiled a list of abandoned sub-way-stations in Queens, the list was rather short – it only contained of two locations that were secluded enough to support Zola with the solitude he surely needed to conduct his experiments and sure enough Doom flew right to the nearest spot. _Damn, we should split up, this way we would be faster – but do I really want to trust Doom? Maybe I have to make that leap of faith if we want to save Sophie._

"Peter, there are only two possible places – time is of the essence, we need to split up. You go with Doom."

"My spider-senses aren't tingling, so I guess it must be a good idea to let me team up with Dr. Doom… or they're broken! Tony, you realise that this guy wiped the floor with me the last time I got in his way, right? How on earth can I possibly stop him should he decide to go villain-y again?"

"I know, Peter, but I can reach the other station much faster than you and I think that Doom is actually willing to work with us – why else would he show up in the first place? I just need you to keep an eye on him."

"Hey, Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!"

"What?"

"It's a Klingon proverb: 'Today is a good day to die'… and remember – if I die I'm going to haunt you!"

"You're going to be alright, Spidey, after all – what could possibly go wrong with Dr. Doom on our side?"

"Damn, you just jinxed it!"

Tony laughed, but then he said with a stern voice: "We're closing in on the first station, be ready." As soon as he saw how Doom started to descend he yelled: "Go!" and threw Peter with momentum in the direction of Doom.


	8. The crotch of Doctor Doom

When his metallic boots made contact with the concrete a sharp noise clang through the empty streets. It was almost two o'clock at night − Victor scanned the vicinity, but he only picked up the body heat signatures of a few homeless people. **Zola is no fool, he is as persistent as a cockroach, surely a scientist of his standing can mask his presence from a few superficial scans.** Victor heard a soft thud behind him, Spider Man stepped next to him.

"Iron Man checks the other station out, it's just the two of us, Vic."

**He is two heads smaller than me and still dares to mock me! Breathe V, calm down, remember, you don't want to regress into your old persona.** "It seems that way… Pete." With that Victor entered the old building.

"Please don't do that," said Spider Man behind him, "it creeps me out when you use my first name… it's our first date, so just call me Mr. Parker."

Victor was amused but didn't deign to answer and instead pulled up the blue-print from the station on his display. There were two storage rooms which would have enough space for Zola to set up his laboratory. They headed for the first room in the sub-basement, it was quiet, only the metallic noise from Victors boots were heard as they descended into the lower levels of the subway station. A damp and mouldy smell greeted Victor and Peter.

"My spider-senses are tingling!" Spider Man suddenly yelled. "We have to get out of here!"

**What's… my sensors are picking up a signal…**

But before neither of them could react a giant explosion brought the upper levels down on them. The whole station collapsed on their heads.

xxxxx

Tony felt a distant explosion. _Damn, wasn't that at the other subway station?_ He was in the lower level of the subway station and was about to leave to check on Peter and Doom when his proximity alarm went off. The armour's battle registry enabled him to duck the punch Crossbones was throwing at him, Tony grabbed his arm and used his own momentum to slam Crossbones into the wall next to himself. In a fraction of a second Tony realised that his opponent had been enhanced with tech – otherwise Crossbones wouldn't have been able to hit a second time without missing a beat. _I've found them – I have to dispatch of this wanna-be Crymson Dynamo and find Sophie! _Tony charged his repulsor beams and knocked Crossbones off his feet. The other man flew several metres into an old subway wagon and didn't move anymore.

"So violent, Iron Man, tststst…" Tony turned to find the source of the voice. It was of course coming from a loudspeaker installed in the ceiling."…and also so careless, gnihihih."

_Crap, Crossbones only distracted me, the rails…_ Then everything went black as Zola turned the current on and electrocuted Tony with several thousand volts.

xxxxx

"Quite a suit of armour you have there, Iron Man, gnhihihi," was the first thing Tony heard when he woke up or rather when the armour woke him up. He had equipped it with adrenalin and pain-killers quite some time ago.

"Well, for an occasion like this… of course I would bring my best piece, Zola." His head was still hurting and Tony had to blink several times to get a focused look at his surroundings. He was tied to a workbench with metallic bonds; Zola was standing a little farther away, next to another workbench on which Sophie was bound. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Tony felt a surge of anger within him. _I will save her, no matter the cost!_

"How good of you," whispered Zola in his creepy mellow voice, "since I'm quite interested in your technological set-up. So I have to apologize for my crude methods, but I hope you understand… I've precious little time before your pesky super-hero friends turn up and I still have to extract the virus or rather what's left of it from the woman. Crossbones, please do your worst."

To Tony's horror Crossbones approached him with a heavy duty drill usually used in road works. Even though he wore his usual black mask, Tony could tell from the form of his silhouette that Crossbones was smiling when he placed the drill on Tony's shoulder joint.

"Hey, Iron Dude… just in case you're wondering… my boss got a piece of vibranium some time ago, and he put it away for rainy days… so it shouldn't take long to peel you out…" said Crossbones and started the drill.

Tony soon had to discover that the vibranium enforced drill was more than up to the task. In a matter of mere minutes the tip of the drill made contact with his skin. The point was so hot that the stench of burnt flesh rose to his nose before the sharp pain made him cry out.

xxxxx

Peter had been quite sure that his last day on earth had come when his spider-senses were tingling so hard that they almost gave him a migraine – that and when he had seen the giant fireball from the explosion rolling towards him. The ceiling had collapsed and Peter had closed his eyes and waited to be squashed like a bug – Bug Boy indeed – but the big blackout never came. Cautiously he opened his eyes again only to stare right at the crotch of Dr. Doom. Peter blinked and realised that the good Doctor was standing over him, holding the debris in place.

"Nice catch, Vic," Peter stated with a shaky voice.

Doom coughed and panted, it was only then that Spider Man saw blood seeping from Victor's mouth piece. "I… I should've sent a Doombot," Victor whispered in a strained voice and coughed up more blood.

Peter had a quick look around and realised that they were trapped, only Doom was preventing them from being maimed by the remnants of the subway station. He had the approximate strength of a spider and could lift around 15 tonnes, but as in this case that wasn't much help, Peter decided that it was the right time to ask the smartest guy in the room. "I'm a little out of my league here, tell me that you have a plan!"

**Who does he think is the talking to?** His whole body hurt. The armour was designed to withstand pressure, but the metric tons that were on top of them pushed him to his limits. On top of that he was quite certain that a girder had penetrated his armour – otherwise he wouldn't taste his blood in his mouth. Victor considered several options to escape this mess.

"Doc? Are you still there?" asked Peter and started to web the debris around Doom to stabilise it. **Smart, the Spider isn't as dense as one would presume.**

"Actually I'm thinking about the best way to escape, be quiet and let me think," said Doom. This wasn't the first time that Doom had been in a dire situation and in the past it had been quite easy to escape, but this time was different: **I could've activated my site-to-site-transport-tech, or I could've blasted the debris out of my way, my armour would have protected me. And yet, I stayed and saved Spider Man. My need to change is more profound than I thought. Hmmm, waiting to be rescued or digging ourselves out would take too long – Sophie is possibly still in danger.**

"The best way? Let's just get out of here!"

The pain in his limbs was increasing, Victor's head was spinning from the extortion, he could barely draw breath due to a sharp pain in his chest. He wanted to get angry, wanted to scream at the insolent wall-crawler… but he almost blacked out just by the effort to speak and so he only said in a low voice: "Do you really think that Doctor _fucking_ Doom doesn't have a back-up plan or doesn't have a way to escape this clumsy trap? Did it ever occur to you that the problem is how _you_ get out of here?"

Peter just stared at him. Victor couldn't see through the mask but he could imagine that the man in front of him was more than surprised. The man in front of him… **That is the solution, I can't use this kind of empathic magic anymore, but Parker surely has the necessary means!**

"I have a solution, we will use magic to teleport out of here, there is only one condition," panted Victor.

"Magic?! What the… but okay, what's the condition?" replied Peter.

"This spell needs a sacrifice…"

"Blood?" interrupted Spider Man.

"Be quiet! No, only lesser, crude magic works with bodily fluids. You have to sacrifice a secret, something nobody knows about. I don't have any significant secrets left… so it's up to you."

"If I didn't know that you're incapable of humour, Vic, I would think that you're just screwing with me," said Peter flatly.

"We don't have time for that! I don't know how much longer I can hold up!" hissed Victor. "I start with the incantation; I will tell you when you have to deliver. And know this: the deeper the secret the more emotions attached to it the more potent the spell will be." Without waiting for Peter's response he closed his eyes and started to chant in an ancient language. A few minutes later he had ended the incantation and opened his eyes again. Peter still sat on the ground, and was holding his head in his hands, he seemed desperate. "Deliver the secret, Spider Man."

"Sometimes when I'm jacking off – or even when I have sex – I think about Reed Richards, I think he's really hot," he mumbled, obviously very embarrassed.

Victor was stunned and it took him a few seconds to recover. "Well… erm, that should be enough…" Victor dismissed a certain picture that had come to his mind and muttered the last incantation.

A fraction of a moment later Victor felt the crushing weight gone, instead he heard a siren wailing in the distance. He and Spider Man were on the street in front of the collapsed station. Doom felt like his stomach was starting to act up, **ah, now I remember the secrets and **_**this**_** were the reason why I didn't use this magic in quite a while.** His innards felt like they were completely out of place and Victor managed just in time to pull his mask from his face before he fell down on his knees and vomited several times onto the dark concrete of the filthy street. Next to him Peter was also throwing up.

Between all the retching Spidey managed to say: "You know, with my luck a picture of this will be on the front-page of the Daily Bugle with the header: Spider Man on a night out with Doctor Doom."

Victor spit out and made certain that his hood covered his face before he reached out to his mask which was lying on the ground; from the corner of his eyes he saw that Spider Man's mask was lying next to his. With a bang of anger he watched how Peter picked both masks up, **damn it, I can't get up to retrieve my mask – even in this poorly illuminated street he would see me – see my face!**

"Don't you dare!" Victor snarled, unable to lift his head to the man standing to his left. "Hand it to me this instant!"

"Gee, calm down, I just wanted to give it to you," replied Peter and submitted the metallic mask to Doom. Victor tore it from Spidey's hands and put it on as quickly as possible. Then he rose to his feet and intended to stare at Peter in a most frightening way, but he was taken aback by the fact that Spidey hadn't put his mask back on, instead he popped a chewing-gum in his mouth and looked at Doom with a smile. **It's so easy for him…** "Hey, honest, I didn't wanted to upset you, Vic, I just wanted to be nice. Want one?" He offered Doom a gum.

The man in the metal suit was appeased, to his own surprise he believed the Spider. "Yes… thank you."

"Here you go Dr. Stinkbreath!" Peter gave a whole pack of colourful chewing-gums to Doom, Victor removed the mouthpiece and took one gum.

"Hubba Bubba? How old are you?" sneered Doom.

"It's impolite to ask a Spider after her age!" Peter put his mask back on.

xxxxx

After this brief respite Victor roughly grabbed Peter and activated his rocket boots, and before Spidey could protest they were already on the way to the other sub-way station. Victor gritted his teeth as he felt a sharp pain in his left hand, his chest and in his right leg. A few months ago he had deactivated the pain-killer-injections in his armour to feel more alive, but now he reactivated them. **I don't have time for my masochistic tendencies right now, I need to be on the top of my game to save Sophie – but perhaps Stark has already managed that.**

"Hey hey! Give me a forewarning the next time! I almost got a heart-attack when you snatched me like that!" yelled Peter.

"Don't you have your, hm, 'spider-senses' for that?" retorted Doom dryly.

"They don't work that way… listen, is there a chance that you could forget about my secret? It would make things rather awkward should someone ever learn that I…" he broke off.

"I would say it falls under the doctor-patient confidentiality," said Victor.

"Are you even a real doctor?"

"Take it or leave it."

"Alright, thanks 'Doctor'."

xxxxx

Doom touched down a few hundred metres from the abandoned subway station. He let go of Spider Man and scanned the area, but nothing indicated that something was amiss.

"We should call the Avengers, there is no telling what Zola…" began Peter, but Victor interrupted him.

"I've already called help as soon as we exited the trap. It should arrive within the next minutes, but we should go ahead lest… We should go ahead." Victor started to walk towards the station, constantly scanning the area.

"Are you alright? You're limping and there is blood on your cape," said Peter from behind.

"Just a broken leg and a punctured lung, nothing to worry about," replied Victor coolly, the adrenalin and the pain-killers were working and he didn't feel any pain at all, only his broken leg was a hindrance.

"Man, remind me never to offend you… hm, on second thought scratch that – I'm going to piss you off in one way or another being my charming self."

"Indeed you will."

They entered the abandoned subway station and a stale smell of urine and garbage greeted them.

"Gross," whispered Peter, "that's not a classy super-villain hide-out."

Victor wanted to comment, but at this very moment his sensors picked something up and he raised his hand to gesture to Spider Man to be quiet. Doom amplified the unidentified frequency and soon discovered that it was… music. **Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots", fifth movement. ****Zola is getting careless, he really thinks that a simple explosion would kill me! He is after all only a second-class adversary. **The music enabled him to pinpoint Zola's exact location, with ease Victor hacked into the security systems and put all surveillance cameras on loop. Doom gestured to Peter to descend further in the lower levels and while they approached Zola's location Victor picked up something else on his scanners beside classical music: Screams, somebody was screaming in pain.


	9. Rogers!

Tony was almost hoarse from screaming. He cursed his suit and the installed drugs, they were enough to keep him conscious but they couldn't keep the excruciating pain away as Crossbones drilled through his armour. He already had several wounds on his shoulders and his right hip – currently Crossbones was drilling the joint in his left hip away. Tony screamed anew when the tip of the drill made contact with his skin. Crossbones simply threw the drill away, it fell on the floor with a loud sound, and tried to yank Tony's chest-plate away. Tony felt sick and desperate, in a few minutes Zola would have access to his tech – it was well-encrypted but if he was to sell it… Tony shuddered at the thought what the likes of A.I.M. could do with his state-of-the-art technology.

His gaze fell on Sophie who looked paler than ever, Zola was standing next to her and fiddled with a syringe. Now that the noise of the drill had stopped Tony heard that the scientist was listening to music while slowly killing two people. As if Zola had sensed that he was watching him, he turned around. Tony had always thought that Zola in his bulky robot body looked like a prop from a B-Movie, but he had let appearances deceive him – Zola wasn't a laughing stock, he had survived longer than most villains and was dangerous as ever. He was as old-school as they came, heck, he even listened to classical music while doing the deed, but he wasn't as stupid or arrogant as the average villain. _I guess it's time for the_ _villain-speech!_

"Ah, Mr. Stark, I hope you are a connoisseur of Mozart's works – I'm particularly fond of this aria: 'Schildre einen Philosophen' is rather exhilarating, isn't it?"

"I prefer Rock n' Roll myself," mumbled Tony.

"What a pity, these biblical themed works are so much more grave and noble. Listen to this…" and Zola sang along with the aria: "Ach, könntest du mir doch / für Kummer, Angst und Forcht, / die mich viel mehr als jede Krankheit quälen, / erwünschte Hilfe schaffen. / Wie gerne wollt' ich dich belohnen!" Zola grinned and stepped closer to Tony. "It's rather fitting for your current situation, Mr. Stark." At this very moment Crossbones succeeded and pulled Tony's chest-piece off. "Gnihihihi, excellent timing. Crossbones, we should make your exit – kill Mr. Stark and the girl, we got what we came for."

"Ok, Boss."

"It was nice meeting you, Mr. Stark, a pity that we haven't had the time to discuss your technological wonders a little more… but as they say: there is no rest for the wicked. Good-bye." Zola waved at Tony mockingly and turned to leave, but then he made a strange sound. Tony turned the head, _damn even that hurt!_, and saw the reason for Zola's smothered yelp: Doctor Doom was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed, the somewhat dim light reflected on his armour giving him a very threatening look. _I've got to hand it to Doom, he knows how to make an entrance._ Spider Man was standing next to him and exclaimed "Super Friends to the rescue!" while he punched his fist in the air. _Spidey on the other hand… _

On second sight Tony realised that Doom was beat up and had blood smeared all over his chest, Peter was also covered in dust and dirt. Victor was even limping when he finally entered the room, he panted and was visibly in pain.

"You scared me for a moment there, Doctor," whispered Zola, "but I can see that you're wounded and we both know that the itsy-bitsy spider isn't going to be enough to stop me and Crossbones." He reached for a modified laser-gun lying on the examination table next to Sophie. Spider Man webbed the weapon to the table with incredible speed and Zola hissed in anger as he was unable to lift the gun.

"I've beaten you once, Doctor, and I will do it again!"

"You forget one thing, Zola: I am Legion," replied Doom and at this moment dozens of Doombots broke through the walls and surrounded Zola and Crossbones.

"Glory to Doom!" "All Hail Doom!" "For Doom!" slurred the machines while they beat Crossbones to a bloody bulb, even a skilled fighter like he couldn't withstand the onslaught.

Zola suddenly had a desperate look on his face. "I… I can't transmit my conscience! Doom what have you…"

"I've bound your spirit to this body, Zola – sometimes magic can accomplish more than technology. Rest assured, you will stay in Doom's care for a long, long time…"

_I really should consider having my own robot army, it's very, very handy…_ thought Tony and moaned when another sharp bout of pain passed through his half-naked body. "Doom," he groaned, "you've got an impeccable timing…"

"Hey, I'm also here," exclaimed Peter and tried to free Tony from his shackles.

Victor limped to Sophie, he ripped her bounds away and leaned over her. "Sophie, can you hear me?"

She looked lifeless, but then she slowly opened her eyes and said with a weak voice: "Doctor… you're really here?"

"Yes, I am." Victor examined her quickly and was relieved to discover that she was only so weak and pale because Zola had drained a lot of blood in order to find traces of the virus. **Nothing she can't recover from.** He turned around and saw how Spider Man helped Tony up, Stark was bleeding from various cuts and his exposed chest indicated that Crossbones had tortured him.

Victor ordered the Doombots to take Zola and Crossbones, at least what was left of him, in custody. Peter picked Sophie up and together the exited Zola's laboratory.

"Hey, I'm Spider Man," said Peter cheerfully to Sophie, "are you Vic's girlfriend?"

Victor sighed while Tony laughed weakly.

"No, not really," answered Sophie smilingly.

xxxxx

As soon as they had stepped out of the building they were blinded by several flood lights and Tony heard Captain America's voice: "Surrender Doom! Order your Doombots to stand down!" They were surrounded by police-forces and the Avengers.

_Uh oh, I should've informed Steve._

**Drat, it's that insufferable Rogers.**

Tony stepped forward. "Hold your fire! Everything is under control…"

"As far as I know you and Doom switched places, how do I know that you're actually Tony Stark?" responded Steve curtly. _Well, the fact that I'm half naked and beat up should be a tell-tale sign!_

Doctor Doom stepped forward, clearly he was ready to response to Steve's ultimatum, _and now the situations escalates in 3, 2, 1… _

But Victor surprised everybody when he simply calmly announced: "Alright, I surrender. This woman," he gestured towards Sophie who was still in Spidey's arms, "needs medical attention, see to it, Rogers."

"Hey, I need medical attention too," said Tony with indignation in his voice.

Before Steve could respond a single shot rang out and ricocheted from Doom's armour into Tony's exposed chest. It seemed almost like slow-motion when Tony first fell onto his knees and finally knelt over.

Victor immediately found the shooter; a very young police officer had been the gunner. But before he had time to think about his motive or if it had been accident, the police men and women shouted: "Iron Man is down! Open fire!"

"No! Hold your fire!" yelled Steve, but it was too late, a hail of bullets was already on the way to Doom. Of course not a single one made even a dent in his armour, they simply bounced off.

Victor knew he had to end the battle quickly, for Sophie's and of course for Stark's and Parker's sake. **Bah, time to go in the third-person mode! Nobody will defeat DOOM!** The pain-killers had worn off and Doom felt his broken bones, the pain seared through his whole body and he utilised it to summon lesser demons that were easily attracted by pain and subdued them with his will.

Peter had skilfully jumped out of harm's way, with his incredible reflexes he avoided being hit by the ricocheting bullets, but before he could bring Sophie to safety he had one last look at Doom… and at this very moment he realised that he had still, even after all his encounters with Doom, underestimated how dangerous the man really was. The Dictator of Latveria was wounded and had several broken bones, the power reserves of his armour were probably low and yet… there was the fact that he was a frigging magician! Doom was casting a spell, his eyes shone in a bright purple colour and he floated a few centimetres above ground, his cape was billowing behind him, from the looks of it Peter was quite sure that Doom was about to kill half of the city.

Victor felt how the power cursed through him, as he chanted his spell, a dark liquid spilled from the ground and from within hell-creatures rose, their shrieking and gargling was uncanny and unnatural. As soon as they had emerged from the black liquid the demons rushed towards the police force. The Avengers – Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Captain America – readied themselves to battle. But suddenly the demons liquefied again and simply tickled away, just before they reached the first humans. The silence was deafening and all eyes were directed to the man in the metallic armour, he descended from his floating and softly touched down on the ground.

"Treat the wounded and I suggest you think twice the next time you try to shoot Doom," yelled Victor, now looking perfectly normal again. There was now no trace left of him having summoned the legions of hell a few seconds ago.

"Wow, I thought that your 'I am Legion'-Line was quite bad-ass, but I never thought that you actually meant it, Vic," said Peter as the jumped next to Doom.

In the meantime Steve had rushed to Tony, who was still lying unconsciously before Victor. "We need a doctor!" Captain America yelled and Captain Marvel landed next to him, cautiously eyeing Victor who tried to give them his best Doom-stare. **Keep your act together V, this is no time to show weakness, especially not in front of the Avengers.** He felt like his chest was on fire, and despite his best efforts he coughed up blood. He felt how it again seeped through his mouth piece.

"It that your blood, Doom?" asked Carol Danvers, pointing at Victor's chest.

"Does that surprise you, Danvers?" snarled Victor, **I'm just too tired to refrain from my old Doom-speech.**

In the meantime medical personnel had arrived and Victor registered how Spider Man put Sophie on a stretcher. He turned his attention to Stark, who was still lying on the ground. A female doctor palmed Tony's chest and turned to Steve: "Get his mask off, we need to give him artificial respiration!" Without further ado Carol simply ripped Tony's helmed away and stood back to let the doctor do her work. She was visibly concerned, she even bit her lower lip and whispered Stark's name. **How curious, Danvers always stroke me as cold-hearted at least for Avengers-standards, but she is indeed worried about Stark.**

"Call Reed Richards," said Doom quietly. "Stark is more machine than man, he needs an engineer, not a doctor."

Steve jerked his head towards Victor and opened his mouth to protest, but then he simply nodded and made contact with the Baxter Building via his communicator.

xxxxx

Doom turned away and strode to Sophie, who was about to be lifted into an ambulance. "Sophie, how are you feeling?" Victor asked. He tried to sound less than his usual self and more like a friend.

"I'm fine, the medic told me that I just need a blood transfusion and a little rest…. Thank you for coming, Doctor. I'm sorry that I doubted you." She looked feverish and weak and Victor felt a twinge in his stomach.

"No, you were right about me, I was only here to make a point – to myself. Every altruistic deed is motivated by egotism one way or another, surely you know that."

Sophie smiled. "On a philosophical level, yes. But it doesn't change the fact that you came to help me, thank you."

Victor smiled and was distracted by an outcry: "Tony!" He rushed to Stark, who had gone into cardiac arrest, the doctor was trying to get his heart or rather his arc reactor going again. **Hm, he will surely die if Richards doesn't get here in a matter… ah what the heck, I will just do it myself.** Victor brushed the doctor aside and knelt down beside Tony, the pain in his broken leg almost let him black out, but he focussed and opened the interface to the arc reactor and connected its energy core to his armour.

He had anticipated that Rogers or another of the blockheaded Avengers would question his actions, but surprisingly they had realised that he was the only one who could save Stark. Victor ran electric currents from his armour through the reactor until he found the right frequency to jump-start it. He remotely commanded his Doombots to bring him the necessary tools and medical supplies to stabilize Stark. Every time one of his robots delivered the desired item, it slurred: "Here Master, all hail Doom!" **By the seven hells, I really need to change the automatic responses, it's getting on my nerves!**

While he was working Victor realised that he was soon going to lose consciousness, he coughed up more blood and had difficulty breathing. **Bah, I've lost too much blood, where is that accursed Richards?**It was only then that he realised that Mr. Fantastic had arrived on the scene and knelt down beside Doom.

"Victor? Let me take over," said Reed and used his phase-scanner to monitor Tony's vital signs. Doom struggled to get on his feet, he coughed and everything became hazy. And only when his mind cleared he realised that Carol was supporting him with her right arm.

"You're not well, Doom. We should get you to a hospital," she whispered. "I realise that you don't want to look weak, but…"

"No, no hospital, accompany me to the Baxter Building, there are no prying eyes," said Victor equally low. "Although I fear that I will never hear the end of it from Johnny Storm." He started his rocket boots and took off, closely followed by Carol. As a final act he ordered the Doombots, and with them his prisoners, back into the embassy.

xxxxx

Victor fell on his knees as soon as he landed on the roof of the Baxter Building. Ben Grimm rushed out of the door and curiously looked at his arch-enemy who was laying in front of him, covered in blood and unable to get up again.

"It's a long story, Ben," said Carol, "but he's seriously hurt and didn't want to go to a regular hospital."

Victor coughed again, little droplets of blood fell onto the roof. He looked up at the Thing. "Mock me if you must, Grimm, but you should know how it is to be gawked at, and while I'm in need of medical assistance I won't be humiliated by the stares of peasants! And since the Latvernian embassy isn't equipped…"

"Well, it would be a pity if you survived Johnny's meat loaf and perished at something as trivial as blood loss," replied Ben calmly.

Victor stared at him and to everybody's surprise he laughed. "And I thought I was the only one who feared that I would die of food poisoning." His laughter was interrupted by a coughing fit.

"C'me here, Vic," rumbled Ben and lifted Doom unceremoniously up off the floor. "Let's find you a quiet place."

"I have to say, you're rather colloquial with your nemesis, Ben," remarked Carol, frowning.

Ben snorted. "Yeah, right, we have a rather special relationship – Vic here has done more to antagonize us than anybody else, besides Reed himself with his crazy ideas perhaps, but he was also the one who helped deliver Valeria and saved Sue in the process. By my aunt Petunia, he has even been a stand-in for Reed on a couple of occasions, so he is kind of our very own worst friend. If you will excuse us, Carol, Nurse Ben is on duty."

"That was touching and also sickeningly sweet…" mocked Victor.

"Ah, shove it; I'm not taking trash from the man who usurped Tony Stark's body to come to a family dinner with us, now that's disturbing and sad."

"Touché, Grimm… touché."


	10. Fluffy ending

Ben brought Victor to a room in Reed's lab and put him on a bed there. It had become a habit that people, mostly other super-heroes, wanted Reed's advice if their powers went hay-wire and so the Fantastic Four had installed a few rooms for their 'patients'. Grimm called Sue and Johnny, and as soon as they arrived Ben explained that they had a new patient in their little hospital.

"Reed called, he will be here momentarily with Tony," said Sue fiercely, "I hope this wasn't your doing, Victor."

"For once it wasn't me, Susan."

"As much as I want to vet our mortal enemy back into health, my dear sister – unfortunately I've got a date! See you!" Johnny left before Sue could reply.

She sighed and looked at Doom, and her gaze was firm. "Unlock your armour, Victor, Ben and I will have a first look, as soon as Reed arrives he will see to your injuries."

He hesitated; after all he wasn't keen on exposing himself. **But you wanted to come here, they know you better than anybody else – and every one of them has already seen your face, like it or not.** "Okay," he said more shyly than he had intended and gave the requested command to his armour.

Slowly, very slowly he pulled one piece of armour after the next from his battered body. His broken leg hurt so badly when he pulled his boot away from it that Victor almost threw up, but he gritted his teeth and pulled through. Finally, he was stripped to his underwear, the last piece of armour was his mask. Sue simply handed him a bathrobe with a hood and discreetly looked the other way while he pulled the mask from his face and covered it as well as he could with the hood from the bathrobe. Ben on the other hand didn't avert his gaze, and yet Victor didn't feel humiliated.

"Quite a beating you took, Doom, somebody I know?" remarked Ben as he vetted Victor's leg expertly. **Who would've thought that this brute was able to perform such a delicate task?** Susan took care of his mistreated left hand. It had been ages since somebody had touched him and it felt strange to say the least. **Strange and pleasing, I'm pathetic…**

"It was a collapsing building, but the mastermind behind it was Armin Zola," said Victor curtly. He was reluctant to discuss his recent efforts to redeem himself.

xxxxx

Reed stepped into the room; he was looking as full of expectation as ever, there was an air of never-ending boyish curiosity about him. Back at college Victor had despised Richards for the way he got enthusiastic about every piece of science but over the years he had realised that it was envy that had spurred his dislike for Richards. **Science as well as magic had and will always be a means to an end, nothing more, I was too driven to see the beauty in an algorithm or the elegance of a structure… but as I grew older I learned to appreciate the aesthetic pleasure of technology.**

"I've brought Tony with me, he is stable – thanks to your efforts, Victor – and should recover in the next few days. Now let me have a look at your injuries." Reed stretched himself half across the room and examined his 'patient'.

"So, let me get this right, Victor von Doom actually saved somebody? What a revolting development!" rumbled Ben. "What's next? Galactus opening a kindergarden?"

"Actually there were three people saved by Victor, Peter Parker, Tony and a woman named Sophie Linder," said Reed absently while he used a bio-scanner to vet Victor's lung.

"I stand corrected," murmured Ben.

xxxxx

After the treatment Reed and Sue left to have a look at Tony who was apparently lying in the next room, Victor wasn't surprised that Ben had stayed behind. **Grimm is the only pragmatist in the Fantastic Four, and he is smart enough to mistrust me.**

"So," began Ben, "what's this about? And don't give me your usual crap." He closed in on Victor and crossed his arm.

"It's about flexibility, Grimm. And about anticipations that turn us into decals of our former self."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Victor hesitated shortly. "I once had a vision… for my country and my people. But look at me now… Our eternal struggle has almost turned me into a raving madman with an obsession about Richards."

"Really? 'Almost'?" interjected Ben, but Victor chose to ignore the comment and continued.

"You should know what I'm talking about, Ben. You were a decorated pilot with a keen intellect as I would presume, before you became the Thing, and yet you fulfil the role of the mindless brute with the golden heart. Don't you ever tire from that?"

"Yes, I do. There are days when I just want to smash everything around me, but you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Yes, but my point is, that I don't want to lose the last shred of my sanity, and so I decided that I want to change something. Do not mistake my efforts for superficial redemption… I cannot be redeemed, but at least I can make sure that I don't suffer anymore because of my choices in the past."

"It's always about you, isn't it?" Ben snorted.

"Of course, but to quote you: You already knew that, didn't you?" Victor gave Ben a half-hearted smile. **Hm, it is still strange to express emotions with my face.**

"Do you know what the sad thing is, Vic? I actually believe that you mean it – but I don't think that you can change. It's only a matter of months until you pull out your weapons of mass-destruction and go all Doom over our asses again." Ben went to the door and turned around a last time. "But we will be there and stop you, as always." Then he left.

Victor's face distorted into a grimace of anger. **The audacity! Grimm thinks that he knows me better than I myself! Damn his eyes! Doom… I'm not so fickle!** Victor grabbed a writing pad from the table next to him and started to write with haste. **I will show him that nobody should underestimate Doom!**

xxxxx

There were only hazy shadows when Tony opened his eyes, he mumbled: "Who is there?" One of the blurs came closer, the man in the bed begun to smile when he recognized Reed who was holding a scanner in his hand. "How come that you're always bending above me when I wake up, Reed? One could think that we were lovers, darling."

"Hmmm, yes…" replied Reed and fiddled with his device. Then he realised that he had been in his 'science-place' and looked like he was caught in the act. Reed put the scanner away. "I'm sorry, Tony, did you say anything?"

"What he meant to say is 'How are you feeling?'" said Sue, she was standing on the other side of Tony's bed. He rubbed his eyes and blinked several times. The haze disappeared.

"Considering that I body-switched twice, was electrocuted, tortured with a drill and shot… surprisingly well," he replied with a lopsided grin.

"Another Thursday, then," rumbled Ben as he entered the room.

"But it's Saturday," said Reed and had a confused look about him, he even checked the calendar on his tablet.

"It's only a figure of speech, Reed." _He is so adorable! Or was it adorkable?_

"Right… yes, I got that," replied the slender scientist without convincing anybody in the room. "Well, I ran all checks, you're going to be alright, Tony. A couple of days rest and you should be your old self." Reed smiled at his friend.

"Excellent! Thank you Reed! While I'm staying here we could work on our projects, I've thought about the problem with the energy-feedback in the transponder…" Reed was immediately fascinated and had almost gleaming eyes when he heard that Tony was getting ready to do science with him, but they were interrupted by Sue.

"I won't tell you to take it easy, Tony, I know you too well, but my dear husband has neglected to tell you that you owe your life to Victor. Without him you would've died before Reed could have reached you." She placed her hand on Tony's right shoulder and stroked him softly. "It was a close call, and I'm glad that you're still here."

_Well, I had a couple of close calls, but it's the first time that I got saved by the villain. Hmm, twice actually, but while he just wanted to get to Sophie the first time… Did Doom really change? He could've just stood by while the 'peasant' died. _"I… Thank you Sue, perhaps I should thank him."

"Good thing he's just next door," rumbled Ben, "you're on sick leave together, Tin Can."

"How come?" asked Tony frowning.

"Victor has sustained heavy injuries, bruised rips, a broken leg and a punctured lung. He had lost so much blood that he was in need of medical attention – but of course he wouldn't go to a regular hospital," explained Reed.

"Well, he didn't look too good in Zola's hide-out… Do you have any word from Sophie? How is she doing?"

"I don't know, she was taken to a hospital. I was told that she only needed a blood transfusion to get better… but I will make inquiries," replied Reed and left the room to make calls.

"Steve sends his regards, Tony, he will come visit you as soon as possible, but there is still business to take care of… it seems that the police commissioner doesn't understand why the Avengers didn't simply take down Victor for good," said Sue and handed Tony a glass of water.

_It seems that I've missed the grand finale._ "What happened anyway? Doom surrendered, didn't he?" He took a sip of water from the glass standing on his nightstand, the cool water felt incredibly good in his dry throat.

"The situation escalated after you were shot by a stray bullet, the police opened fire and well, Victor summoned demons from hell," explained Sue.

"Of course, what else?" replied Tony. "It seems that I left the party too early…"

"But before anything could happen Victor made the demons disappear, so that you and Sophie Linder could get medical attention."

_Huh, look at that, only Doom would use hell-spawn to restore peace and quiet._ "You didn't mention Peter, I hope he is alright?"

"Yes, I am – thanks for asking!" Spider Man entered the room with a large bouquet of flowers. "How come that nobody mentions my heroics in all this? Scandalous, simply scandalous!"

Ben laughed and padded Peter roughly on his back.

"Since when do you bring flowers when I'm sick, Peter?" asked Tony.

"Hmpf, they're not for you but for my new best friend – Vic! But Carol asked me to give you this." Peter handed Tony a cute puppet with curly hair and a pink dress. _What the…?_

"Victor will be annoyed…" began Sue but Peter interrupted her.

"Of course, that's the point!" And with that Peter went to the next patient.

xxxxx

Spidey barged into Doom's room and yelled: "Vic! How are you doing?" Peter was surprised by the sight in front of him: Victor wasn't wearing his usual garb, but a white bathrobe. It seemed almost unimaginable to think of Victor von Doom without picturing him in his armour. He appeared strangely vulnerable, lying in a bed, only covered by a simple robe. "I brought you flowers since our first date was such a blast!"

"I'm not in the mood for your humoristic attempts… leave," replied Victor and turned his head slightly away from Peter while pulling the hood down. I should've kept my mask on… but I was… I am so tired of it. Victor put down the writing pad and rubbed his temples.

"No need to be such a sourpuss," said Peter and placed the flowers in an empty vial, "I just wanted to thank you for saving my butt out there."

"You said your piece, you can leave."

"Nope, you haven't answered my question – how are you doing?" Peter saw that Doom's bloody armour was lying next to the bed, the mask of top of it. "Do you want your mask? I could…"

"No!" Victor almost yelled and then cursed under his breath for losing his composure. "No, and I'm fine. If you have any respect for me, then go away."

"Aw, you should know by now that I don't respect anybody. I stay!"

"Shall I call upon my legions of undead to remove you?"

"Aaaand… I'm out. Bye-bye, Vic!" Spidey exited the room and returned to Tony.

xxxxxx

"Sheesh, he is in a foul mood," Peter complained as he entered Tony's room and approached Sue and Ben who were standing next to the bedside.

"Strange, usually Vic is all about flowers and rainbows," grumbled Grimm and stamped away. Reed skilfully stretched himself over Ben as he entered the room.

"Ms. Linder is alright, Tony."

"Great, I should call Laura to tell her that Sophie is safe now," Tony reached for his mobile phone and dialled Laura's number. Reed and Sue announced that they would be back later and left. Laura was of course relieved and thanked him for his help – Tony gave her a short account of the events and hung up quickly lest Laura could go to Sophie.

_How strange to tell somebody that they owe their loved one's life to Doom… I wonder what his next move will be? Perhaps I should check on him… and ask him about the puppet._

The pain-killers were working pretty well, but Tony still had to struggle a little to get up. He limped to the door next to his and knocked softly, then he opened it and peeked inside. Victor was writing something on a writing pad and ignored him, several sheets of paper were lying across the bedside. Tony limped closer and took a seat in a chair that was standing on the right side of the bed.

Victor sighed. "First the Spider and now you… Had I know that I would be pestered like that I would've chosen to bleed to death in my private chamber."

"My my, aren't you a ray of sunshine…" Tony took out the puppet with the shrill pink dress and threw it on Victor's bed. "Isn't that what you wanted? To be molested by the likes of us?"

Doom picked up the puppet and looked at it thoughtfully. "Perhaps… but I want to keep my dignity if you don't mind, I won't degrade all my previous decisions – which were mostly based on pragmatism – by embracing all conversations and contacts you're so 'kindly' offering me. On the contrary, I'm offering you my good grace and not the other way around." Victor put the puppet on his nightstand and continued to write.

"Sure, you're a gift to mankind, Victor, but do you really think that it works like that? You're the one who is lonesome, beggars can't be choosers."

Victor stopped his writing. **Drat, I can't even stare at him because I'm not wearing my mask! Averting my gaze like a schoolgirl! But no more!**Victor slowly turned his head towards Stark and eyed him up, fully aware that the other man could see his mutilated face. "Doom never begs, you would do well to remember that!"

Tony didn't flinch at the sight of Doom's destroyed face, after all he had worn that very face himself. "Stark doesn't react well to threats," he said in his best Doom-imitation.

"Doom doesn't appreciate being mocked!"

"Stark doesn't care!" Finally Tony burst out laughing.

To his surprise Victor joined in. "It sounds really silly to talk in the third person, doesn't it? I'm actually trying to fix that."

"Well, at least you can pull it off – look at me, it sounds ridiculous if I'm trying to talk like that."

"One of the perks of being the scourge of the free world," replied Victor surprisingly playfully.

At this moment Reed stepped into the room and absent-mindedly nodded toward the two men. "Evening, Sue told me… oh, what are you working on, Victor?" And with sparkling eyes he looked over the formulas Doom had written down. "That's… amazing!"

Tony knew from experience that Reed was about to go into his little science-world and interjected: "Reed, what did Sue say?"

"Fascinating! Victor, that seems to be a working cure for Ben! It's so simple and effective!"

_What? Doom can actually accomplish what Reed couldn't? On the other hand he could transform Sharon Ventura and Desmond Pitt, perhaps he discovered the key to reversing the effect?_

"Bah, of course, D… I also included a genome sequence that would allow Grimm to change at will. It was simply a matter of splicing the DNA with the appropriate…" Before Victor could end the sentence Reed hugged him with all his might – he even wrapped his arms several times around his former nemesis. "Let go of me, you insolent…"

"You did it; you are granting a member of my family their deepest wish!" Reed laughed and even had tears in his eyes. "Victor, you don't know what it means to us! What it means to Ben!" Reed rushed out of the room, Tony could hear him calling out to Sue and Ben.

Tony looked at Doom questioningly. _Why did he…_

Victor smiled quietly. "Richards is the only one who always reached out to me, even when I was at my lowest… It was long overdue."

"So… you're officially one of the good guys now, at least for the time being," said Tony while scratching his head, "do you want a deep conversation about your motives and your regrets – with the occasional witty abuse from both sides – or do you fancy a game of chess in steely silence?"

"I guess we could insult each other while playing chess, two birds with a stone, don't you think, 'peasant'?"

"Of course, 'Tin Can'."

_There is no way I can lose._

**There is no way I can lose.**


End file.
